Tank destroyers are special-purpose machines... think of them more as a mobile tank gun on a self-propelled high-speed mount. In order to do what they do, they have to be fast and maneuverable, hit hard, and get away, and in order to accomplish that, they HAVE to be light. The catch is, no matter how quiet it might be, it's basically impossible for a tracked machine to 'sneak up' on anything, anywhere, when there's infantry spread out around the countryside, so the only way to be successful, is to be faster, which inherently means, be lighter... more power-to-weight. In the European theatre, being light enough to zip across risky bridges and ford through streams was a big advantage when it came to 'zoom and boom' antitank operations, the M18's light weight, Christie chassis, automatic transmission, and gun, it had the zoom, and the boom.
The open top, however, gave it the same character as a tank with the hatch open- a convenient disposal receptacle for pinless hand-grenades, and when firing from an elevated position, a nice rattle-can for recently-expended projectile cartridges.
It offered substantially better mobility, and protection though, to a PAK-88... which Germany was pulling around with HORSES. The M18 could roar off landing craft, up the beaches, and down the roads to get where the enemy's armored mammoths were, surround them, and light them up.
Neither the M4, nor the M18 were 'heavy tanks', or even 'battle tanks'. The M4 was a multipurpose platform which happened to be perfect for the infantry support role. Tank-on-tank battles, particularly against the Wermacht's heavy tanks, it was terribly vulnerable, but realize, it came to the European continent ON A SHIP, and it was either driven through the surf (or in the case of a brave, yet unfortunate many) SWAM to shore with a duplex amphibious drive) to help clear out a path and silence whatever guns it could, to protect our soldiers.
If the Wehrmacht had to bring their tanks to the battlefield on a SHIP, they would NOT have had anything over 60,000lbs.
In the end, it was man-carried antiarmor weapons, and the brave men that brought them to bear, that became the final word on the battlefield.
It was the factories, and the resource management that determined who would effectively bring an end to the war.
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