re: How were German armored divisions so much more elite than their US counterparts

With regard to the German Panzer Divisions vs the US Armored Divisions.

You have to go half-year by half-year to compare, because, as the war dragged on, the German panzer divisions got worse as the US armor divisions developed real skills.

From November 1942 until summer 1943, the German panzer division had the edge. This edge gradually flipped to the US side because the German panzer divisions had to be re built with new personnel and new equipment more often that you'd think. The German panzer units got consumed and used up in constant action. The US armor units also suffered some attrition, but, on a lesser scale that allowed them to maintain and improve unit quality.

Despite all of the above, there were a handful of German panzer divisions that maintained their excellence and tactical superiority throughout the entire war. The 2nd Panzer Division comes to mind, as does Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland. 1st SS, 2nd SS and 12th SS Panzer divisions also come to mind.

German tanks are thought to be universally better than the US tanks. Keep in mind that the most numerous German tank during the latter half of the war was the Panzer IV with the long barreled 75mm main gun. The Panzer IV was a tank design dating back to 1936. By 1944 the Panzer IV was kind of obsolete and had many weaknesses, not the least of which was that it's frontal armor could be defeated by the most common 1944 US tank at fairly distant ranges. So, it's not true that the German tanks were universally better.

The German tank designs that WERE better than US designs were always way too few in number to keep the Western Allies out of Germany.

The Sherman Easy Eight was probably a better tank than the German Panzer IV, but, this point is debatable.

Final point: by late 1944, due to combat losses, the German tank CREWS were of an overall mediocre quality, because they were relatively new soldiers that had relatively little tank crew training. It could very well be true that by this phase of the war, the American tank crews were overall more experienced and better trained than the German tank crews.

In the movie, Brad Pitt's character is said to have been fighting in a tank crew since November 1942 when the US invaded North Africa. This would give him an immense advantage in tank crew experience over any of his German opponents. Very, very few, if any, German tank crew members in November 1944 would still be crewing a tank in 1945.