Pershing is not about standing agasint Axis armor. It's about having something else than Jackson to deal damage. Every faction has 4-5 late game AT options. US Forces have only 1 in fact. That's the point we are talking here. Not damage sponge, but useful late-game AT unit.
I agree, Jackson is the lone late AT option and that is it. In vCoh, we had the option of upgrading the "fun" on the Sherman but in Coh2, nope call in doctrinal Ez-8s.