1. Most of the engines on Ta 154 that actually flew were very much comparable with 1-stage Merlins, both in weight and consumption. Fw saw the wrong of their ways with trying to install the Jumo 213s on the small wing Ta 154, and moved (but just in theory) towards the Ta 254, with the bigger wing and longer fuselage.
2, 3 & 4 - Good for a fighter, reducing drag and weight = better speed and RoC (things that Hornet gained over Mosquito, among other stuff).
My old book may very well be wrong on what engines were used in Ta-154, first 2 prototypes were 211Ns (?) and the next 13-15 planes got Jumo 213E s wuth two stage 3 speed superchargers, (?). There may have been more substitutions of other 213 models?
As far as the Hornet goes, great fighter single seat fighter, as bomber? Yes it could carry a pair of 1000lb bombs under the wings but that meant you couldn't carry drop tanks.
Everyone was strapping the bombs outside
Granted, a real bomber will need a half-decent bomb bay, or at least a recess that can hold a big bomb.
And that is sort of the problem.
The Mosquito is sort of held up as the gold standard for twin engine aircraft, being able to do a number of jobs without much modification. It turned out to be pretty much the right size for the Merlin engines for good performance, The Merlin was able to be boosted in power, and in 1941-42-43 most other peoples "fast" bombers really couldn't carry a much heavier load than the Mosquito. And just about everybody else's "Fast" bombers were not fast enough. The A-20 was about the closest and it wasn't fast enough and had crap for range at higher cruising speeds. At least the A-20 could carry four 500lb bombs inside
The A-20 got better but it took a while.
In the early part of the war the Germans don't have a 1600hp radial engine. It shows up in 1941. and instead of sticking it in a 21,000lb plane they stuck it in a 33,000lb plane.
Do 217E-2.......................614..............................................19,520.....................................33,070
They needed the big plane to try to replace the He 111. Please note that a Do 217 E-2 was heavier empty equipped (23,250lb) than early A-20s were taking off with crew, bombs and fuel in 1941. Different type of airplane and perhaps a good try in 1940-41 when people were trying to figure out what kind of speed you needed for high speed, daylight bombing.
turns out that 273mph at sea level and 320mph at 17,000ft wasn't close to being good enough.
That leaves the Germans with different versions of the DB601 and Jumo 211 for their fast bombers until 1943 (?).
And that leaves them with the choice of bombs or fuel or going slow.
The ME 210 was actually the best bet of the existing planes if they had fixed the handling problems early on. Get rid of the dive brakes and just shallow angle dive, Just stick one or two 13mm machine guns in the rear of the cockpit instead of that barbette mount. Then decide if you want a bomber or fighter on the same airframe, If you want a fighter stick the guns in the bomb bay, don't try to carry two 20mm guns (with 350rpg /around 305lbs just for ammo) ) and two 7.9mm machine guns with 1000rpg at the same time as the bombs. If you want a little "respect" armament put in four 7.9s with 500rpg or less.
Or for short range work keep the 20mm guns in the bomb bay a put an external rack under the wing roots.
You may wind up with a 350-360mph "bomber" without too much trouble.
Germans had a lot of trouble with the radar antenna, some installations were worth over 20mph, as much as 30? So there is only so much wing clipping you can do to get the performance back