An interesting analysis. So what difference would there be between an Italian attack and a German attack?
I limited myself to North Africa and did not include Crete or Malta (Where the Germans lacked trucks.). North Africa is all about trucks. In 1940, when the Italians didn't have them and 1941 when they did, is a major difference. No trucks means walking. Walking meant you simply walked towards a British Prisoner of war (POW) camp waiting for you.
In 1940, the Italians believed in, but hadn't trained for, "The War of Rapid Decision" in which trucked troops bypassed British strongpoints. It sounds like German blitzkrieg but it wasn't. In blitzkrieg, if the Germans were attacking say, target "A", the Luftwaffe cut off reinforcement to target "A" (The Ju-87's bombed the bridges and rear artillery while the He111's bombed the enemy supply warehouses and their railroad stations plus Bf110's and Do-17's took out the enemy's airfields. By comparison, about all the Italians could bomb was a city/port or airfield (usually once and then never come back.). Instead, the Italians attacked British vehicle road columns with what they called "Assault aircraft" (Cr.32's and Ba.65's armed with 12.7mm MG's.). By shooting up engine radiators, they could delay a British motor column for a short time.
The main German attack on "Target A" would come from tanks (like PZ IV's) with a short barreled 75mm gun to take out enemy concrete pillboxes for machineguns. Walking behind the tanks and using them as cover, were infantry to clean out these "hardpoints". Behind them were the schutzen panzers (armored half tracked vehicles armed with a heavy machinegun for trench "cleaning". They carried just a few soldiers who dismounted while the halftrack was still moving to prevent it from being zeroed in from enemy artillery fire. By this means, they brought a few troops up
very close to the trench being cleared and these soldiers took out the trench command bunkers. Thus, the enemy artillery, pillboxes, trenches, and command posts were all targeted at the same time while the Luftwaffe denied rear road movement. Sound good? It was even better. Once the Germans breached the line, they sent "recon" battalions though on ahead. This force was misnamed as it followed LAST behind the main attack. They were mostly Mk I and II tanks, with a couple of 88's, and some artillery pieces and motorized infantry. Basically, a small, light panzer division, they raced on ahead to capture a main road intersection in the enemy's rear. When the enemy's retreating columns reached that intersection, they got stopped, jammed up, and surrendered. Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops were captured this way. A good example of this was carried out by a small, light British mobile force at Beda Fomm to capture the Italians fleeing Benghazi.
So how did the Italians attack in their "War of Rapid Decision"? They attacked on foot in narrow columns in order to attack the narrowest possible defensive front. They were also quite effective with artillery, which they brought up very close to the British for direct fire. Some it was truck mounted. Once stopped, Bersaglieri were called in to outflank the enemy machine guns followed by trucked troops (who previously moved no faster than the walking infantry in front of them.). Thus, an Italian attack began at the speed of mud behind infantry marching in parade formation until the trucked infantry passed them (taking 2 hours to do). In theory, a Celere division followed (but not always in practice), acting somewhat like a German recon battalion although not defensively designed. At the very rear of the attack were the Italian tanks and which often never became a part of a battle due to insufficient armor (L3's and M11/39's). The later M13/40 was a very effective tank, not by being a better tank, but by it's range. A battalion of M13/40's, if it spotted a moving dust cloud (British vehicles) would use their range and speed to come in from behind that dust cloud, the British being unable to see out of it, They would then attack from behind (Sometimes as the British were refueling.). Oddly enough, the M13/40 was a British tank killer but this did not happen until 1941. The Italians were also taught tank recovery by the Germans so sometimes the British had to destroy the tank three times.
In 1941, Rommel would motorize two Italian infantry battalions of an infantry division for an attack (The rest stayed home in Tripoli.). These moved at incredible speed (Italian trucks were very good.). Otherwise, they still used the same 1940 equipment and still lacked recon battalions. Rommel used them either for diversionary attacks (With their trucks they could arrive fast and get away fast.). The British took these diversionary attacks very seriously. Rommel would also use them to surround British strongpoints which his German troops bypassed. However, they weren't very good at taking those strongpoints as 75mm artillery was too light and their 149/13's worthless.
In terms of invading Malta as compared to the Germans invading Crete, the Italians had already used air landing troops, parachutists, and parachute supplies since 1938, the latter two with pretty good accuracy and could airdrop L3 tanks. In 1940, they lacked the obvious (three HMG and an 81mm mortar) to hold a position and had only carbine rifles, but this was corrected and the Folgore Parachute division was very well trained (I expect as good as German.). Had some of this thinking been applied in 1940, its likely they could have been put to good use. The Italian mountain divisions were easily converted to Air Landing divisions. The parachutists, combined with assault aircraft, would make British trucks in the south find it difficult to move north or defend the Victorian Line.
Supplying Malta in 1940 is a bitch (You have 48 hours to unload before the British Navy arrives to bombard what supplies you just landed. The Germans did not have this problem.). Supplies can be parachuted but not enough. I also had to borrow nine German gliders and their pilots from Hitler to take out three troublesome coastal guns. The northern landing beaches were both mined and provided underwater obstacles. The Germans faced no such problem on Crete. There are number of delaying line pillboxes the British erected that would require 75mm field guns to take out which, while they can be landed, are not easily moved. Again, the Germans never had this problem on Crete. And while the Italians could air land on Malta's airfields, after their British fighters took off, the British drove a bus across the runway to block it for Italian Sm.81's to use. When their fighters returned, the bus was removed and then returned to blocking the runway. So an Italian attack on Malta would not be the same as the German attack on Crete.