Are long term production line underpowered?

[Zauberelefant]

It's a good thing Sherman's and F2's were not around in North Africa until they both were. Thus fulfilling its role as a stopgap measure.

I never said it wasn't a flaw. I said the Sherman wasn't designed because of the M3's flaws not because it didn't have flaws. And that the terrain they were fighting in mitigated these flaws. The Sherman was being designed since the fall of France. The M3 was an early prototype Sherman chassis that they strapped a hull gun onto because they needed a 75mm. It did what it needed to do, when it needed to do it.

But you are wrong on one thing: the desert isn't flat. The 75mm in the hull was an actual drawback of the M3, especially against long range AT guns, Marder tank hunters or the 88. But even in tank combat, a sponson mounted gun is a disadvantage. However, better having the M3 than nothing at all.