I haven’t read all the posts but I think it can be proven mathematically easily that tanks can be worth being purchased.
Let’s assume a typical German/Russian situation.
Germans attack with
26 inf
9 mech
5 art
9 tanks
4 figs
4 tacs
2 Bombers
Russian defend with
41 inf
4 mech
9 art
3 tanks
2 figs
1 tacs
4 AA
The Germans have 13% odds to win that battle.
Now let’s assume the Germans can add 36 IPC either worth in tanks or in mech to that attack.
If you add 9 mech to this attack the odds for the Germans to win that battle go up to 64%
However, if you add 6 tanks to that attack the odds go up to 69%
So we have mathematical proof that investing into tanks rather than mech can have benefits for attacking purposes.
Thus tanks are definitely NOT a bad purchase by definition compared to mech.
q.e.d. or did I overlook something?