Roger Don, since we modders tinker with custom obats, perhaps one can say the difference in gameplay isn't worth a "tinker's dam"?
Getting back to M48s...in USAREUR, all the ACRs got M48A2s by 1958, but I can't find any reference to tank battalions receiving them (only USAK and CONUS tank battalions appear to have fielded M48A2/A2Cs). About the same time, USAREUR MTOEs replaced ACR and DIVCAV M41s with medium tanks, resulting in M48A2-pure ACRs; DIVCAVs may have hung onto their M41s until M60s were fielded, I have photo evidence of M60s working with M114s in infantry battlegroup recon platoons. Per
US ARMY BORDER OPERATIONS IN GERMANY 1945-1983 by William E. Stacy, in December 1962 DA and USAREUR planned to replace M48A2Cs in ACRs with M60 series tanks by 1965; per photo evidence in Tankograd's
U.S. ARMY GERMANY 1945-1969, it apparently didn't take place until 1964, whereby they were one of the first units fielded with M60A1s, skipping the M60s which were Standard B by that date.
One more note, I've seen a photo of an ACR M47 tank dated 1956; in that case, is it possible that ACRs didn't receive M48A1s like their tank battalion brethren, but went straight from M47s to M48A2s in 1958? Or did they convert to M48A1s first in 1956, and swap them for M48A2s two years later? It's not inconceivable, considering they swapped out M60A1(RISE/Passives) for M60A3(TTS) in only two years in the early 1980s. Would appreciate if anyone has definitive info, thanks
John