Richard, like the look of your build, very neat and the zimmerit does look good for all your hard work. Certainly is true that photos can be found to show all sorts of variations in the extent to which it was applied - usually does seem to be on the vertical and near-vertical surfaces of the armoured body, and as you have it, on the track guard ends, and while rarely on the main side skirts (I think the photo in this thread is one of the few examples there is), it is quite common for it to be on the turret spaced armour.
On your hatch open / closed dilemma, I think it depends on whether you have tank crew that can sit in the hatch. I seem to remember the Tamiya set you have has some tank crew, but are they in the right sort of positions to use in the tank?
You may be interested in or take some inspiration from the
build I did of the old Bandai 1/48 kit , for which I bought some Art of War figures. Unfortunately from what I can make out these seem to no longer be available, but there are others, such as Squad 48, that look quite good, and no doubt there are others.
Maybe for some further inspiration for your diorama, try getting hold of the Squadron / Signal In Action book.
Edit: in fact it seems to me that those same figures are now branded as Squad 48 - not sure why that is, but here they are on ebay:
1/48 Squad 48 - WWII German Tank Crew 
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