As far as I can see the theory with 4 types of monsters creats or rather shows 3 problems:
1. An inherernt problem of the theory is, that type 2 is very similar in its potency to type 4. Thus we have to answer the question: Why does Morgoth take the effort of creating mechanical Dragons so similar to the real ones he had already at his comand?
We can of course only gueses at the answere. But we have to find a probable answere to make the theory work.
One guess is that he had not enough type 4 dragons for the attak that he planed. That would imply that he had have haevy loses in the Nirneath.
Or it might be that he was unsitisfied with the behavior of the dragons in the Nirneath. Had Azaghâl wounded Glaurung a bit early in the course of that battle, the flight of the dragons might have turned the tide against Morgoth. So Morgoth might have wiched for beatst that do not act so irrational and tried his hand on mechanical monsters.
At last it might be that we have to look closer on what service the type 2 did in the battle: They crushed the Walls of the city by leaning their very haevy bodies against it. The iron type 1 was only able to crush the gate but not the walls around it. Copper has a high density (8.92 kg/dm³). For bronze the density depends highly on the actual alloy. Typical bronze (used for bearings, fittings, bronze-medals) is an alloy of copper and tin (7.28 kg/dm³). Other bronze could be copper with lead (11.36 kg/dm³) for hammers that does not produce sparks, silver (10.53 kg/dm³) for brazing for coopertubes, or with alluminium (2.7 kg/dm³) for a special combination of electrical and mechanical properties. (Sorry for that lenghty account, but I cuoldn't resist to show my professional knowledge.)
Only the last one could have a lower density than iron. So if the type 2 dragons would have been exactly in build like type 1 they would have been haevier. But since type 1 is hollow we might expect type 2 to be much havier than any other dragons. Type 4 is clearly a kind of lighweight dragon in comparission to any mechnical one since all animals we know have a over-all-density around 1 kg/dm³.
So it might be that Morgoth did know from Maeglin how heavy his monsters must be to break the walls of the city. And according to that knowledge he builded type 2 monsters.
2. The type 4 dragons are not clearly introduced in the text as having participated in the battle.
That is true and I wonder that Aiwendil is nearly willing to amand it with a insertion into the text. I do not think that this is neccessary. The reader will expect them to be their from the start, because they had been in any other battle since the Dagor Bargolach. That leads dirctly to the last problem:
3. The confusion between type 3 and type 4. I think in this we are no longer any good judge. We all have discussed so long about the creation scene that we can no longer read the text openminded. I think that a reader how had read before of the battle of Beleriand and Glaurungs deeds, will recognise type 1 and type 2 easily after the creation scene. But he will most probably take nearly all the mentions of type 3 in the original
Tale as type 4. So what might be really needed is the clearification of type 3 not of type 4. I don't think we would like to edit each single type 3 mentioning. But may be we must prepare the read for the task we impose on him (to interpret the dragon type while reading). In the creation scene there is no mention of the later "name" "dragons of fire", with which they were mostly addressed in the text, but that could be easily amended:
Quote:
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... yet others were creatures of pure flame that writhed like ropes of molten metal, and they brought to ruin whatever fabric they came nigh, and iron and stone melted before them and became as water, and {upon}[with] them {rode}[moved] the Balrogs {in hundreds}; and these [dragons of fire] were the most dire of all those monsters which M[orgoth] devised against Gondolin.
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That is clearly a change for clearity but its benefit is in my view so geart that it should be made.
Respectfully
Findegil