But when you are defending a house, you want to hear footsteps. right? We can make footsteps be blocked by the tank, but that will also mean wooden fences, thin walls of houses etc will be blocked, so everybody will be ninjas. Now, a WW2 soldier with his gear and boots, can he run up a staircase in a house without making a sound?
In all the movies Ive seen, german soldiers make a hell of a racket whatever they do (Those boots clamping on cranky wooden france floors)
So we need to weigh this; lone tanker VS all the infantry on a map. I think most people would vote to hear footsteps in houses/yards/streets etc.
Problem right now, is that open-topped vehicles have no advantage over fully closed ones.
They don't get a better view, since every tanker right now can see around from a spot above the turret, and they don't get to hear enemy tanks (or infantry) coming, or rather they do, just like in every other tank.
The only thing you get from driving a M10 or a Marder right now is the fun of getting strafed by every plane on the map and getting killed by any good rifleman who spots you before you spot them.
Tanks with closed structures/turrets should have external sounds muffled, if only to give a bit of an edge to open-topped ones.