the sad thing about the military is, that "if the idea did not work before, we should try it again" attitude. I am not blaming just the military with this philosophy incidentally.
The Germans in WWII were getting deperate and short of armour so they started slapping 5 & 7.5 cm long barrel guns on their Sd. Kfz. 234 8 wheeled armoured cars. In amush mode they worked okay but as soon as the first shot rang out they were overclassed and destroyed. The best was to keep them far back and use in support of an infantry attack or in the stop gap situtation that they were intended. Better them than nothing.
However , reading Panzer Taktics, as the war went on , it was more and more likely to use a recce troop of Pathers to probe and reconnoitre instead of light skinned vehicles, at least in armour formations.
Also, I would envision these new weapons to be used in roles not conceived for it. IE, if you are under attack and its all you have , its going to be used in the direct fire role against armour instead of a tank. Where it would seem missles fired from longer range with the light armour vehicles would be prefered. Seemed to work for the Bradleys in 1991 anyway.
Well here is hoping that a few Canadian restorers buy the Leopards and keep them in shipshape so the Canadian goverment can buy them back sometime in the future when they are desperate. Like the UK government did with the Humber Pig for NOrth Ireland patrol. Gosh, isn't history just full of examples of stuff
Sean