I find the super spin super annoying on my HL based tiger1.  I makes doing slow maneuvers difficult.  I'm getting sick of trying a slow pivot only to have my tank suddenly jerk into a spin ![:@]!!
 I have seen enough combat footage of tanks taking down trees and small obstacles in a mad dash but except in specific terrain (ie: desert or open plains)  you almost always see tanks moving on roads.  It's funny to actually see film of Tiger tanks lined up like sitting ducks going down a muddy road.  You say to yourself, "why aren't they spread out and cruising through those open fields?"  I think this has been said a few times: They drove down the road in a line because they didn't want to end up immobile in an open field with a damaged suspension or thrown track.  
That being said , I too bought a tank so I could thrash it.  However I spend more time fixing and re-engineering my tank than driving it and most of my driving time is spent doing slow maneuvers, trying to master controlling a tank.  My goal is to able to drive my tank and make it react exactly as I want it to.  Which in my case means trying to make my tank look as real as possible.
  As for stunt drivers... I don't think it looks right in these meets that I've seen on the youtube (and I just wouldn't play against a 80mph sherman) but it's up to them and the people they play with to decide how they should run their tanks.  I sometimes use my tank to push around metal lawn chairs in my back yard (it's a concrete slab) but I wouldn't  drive through a building barrel first in a combat meet even if I could push through three at once (unless it was a special demo!).