Yes, I have to agree with you about that - the high point for me in playing PE (the unmodded version) was the platoon management... assigning tanks based on availability, limited ammunition supplies, the increasing expertise in the crew members when they survive...

As for the game itself, I recall that the mission design could be somewhat, shall we say, "crappy". One mission in particular (in North Africa) involved a nasty artillery barrage guaranteed to destroy (not disable) your entire tank platoon. Seems it was triggered off by driving your tank over a particular spot on the map... After a few tries, I wised up enough to make a detour, not a very large one, off the road, to continue... and voila, Mission accomplished...:D

There was a later 'Mission Impossible' in Normandy which literally stopped my campaign in its tracks. Just not possible to survive that one :down:
PE disappeared off my HD some time after that...

SIM no more!
 

OK to sum up:

1) Best, no contest, tank sim available SB.Downside expensive to purchase and not recommended unless you plan on playing it seriously and dedicate yourself to it for years to come.

2) Best WWII title currently available SF.Downside no MP, and AI is iconsistent.

3) Tvst( stock game) not recommended buggy, scripted and even MP is shaky.

4)TvsT Kursk ZeeWolf mod. Much improved but expensive and work in progress

5) PE, OK for beginners with lots of mods but dated in every aspect and AI is primitive.

6) T72 BoF or Iron Warriors(depends where you buy it).Cheap and not too difficult but limited replay, dated graphics and not very immersive.

That's it!

Otherwise you hava other games but they're either first shooters ARMA and ARMA II, Red Orchestra or rts of the Achtung Panzer Kharkov 1943 type, Men of War, Soldiers Heroes of WWII, Codename Panzers , Theatre of War etc