[CCIP]

There is also the Tench class (which I believe is only in modded versions of the game), which were the last wartime boats, essentially identical to Gato and Balao classes but with an even stronger hull.

Basically once you get up to the Tambor class, there are more similarities than differences. That was the class where the fleet boat design finally hit the sweet spot, and remained there with few alterations until the war's end (although there were, of course, upgrades to all classes of operating boats throughout the war). There aren't really advantages/disadvantages in the sense that all of the submarines in the game (except the S-boats) are basically evolutions of the same design, so each class is more or less a slightly bigger, tougher, better version of its predecessor.