I didnt know they didnt have better spotting skills. Something learnt there then. I've been using them the same way - on extreme flanks and they can definitely save your bacon. I got a German campaign going and like you say, keep them on the flanks and avoid fights unless in deep sh*t, though where they have come unstuck sometimes is when strolling through 1 hex visibility woodland and suddenly a bunch of T34's carrying infantry turns up where their last turn ended.... ooops. On the otherhand if you aint so unlucky, (or is that just more careful?), they can be used for causing chaos at enemy rear. I put them in 250/1's but you have to be very careful with that for obvious reasons
But they handy for getting your scouts across a large chunk of map early on or getting an unlucky pinned scout unit out of trouble. Just dont park up somewhere risky with the scout still on board. I've recently beefed up each of the 2 groups, each one has 2 Aufklarer; 2 250/1; 1 Puma; 1 250/7; 1 250/17. Ok now n then a unit lunches it, but c'est la guerre, sh*t happens. Last delay mission they got bypassed by attacking enemy armour (valuable info passed back to HQ about what was heading where), and went on to scout out enemy mortars. Later on they knocked out 2 Russian rocket launchers, 3 mortars, assorted fleeing inftry from the main battle. So a Must Have Item for sure
The amount of times I would have been caught unawares without scouts of some sort makes them worth every point spent.