Reading through this thread makes me want to buy a new Korth Mongoose (aka National Standard). The new Korth seems to offer the dual benefits of offending old Korth collectors for being cheapened and inferior by some metric of precision or quality that can’t easily be quantified, and offending everyone else who cannot accept anything aside from a Ruger/S&W/Colt.
I suspect the new Korth is mechanically just as good as the old Korth, and just as durable even though no Korth collector would ever admit it. I also suspect that the new Korth will be easier to shoot well in double action than any currently made S&W, Ruger, or Colt.
The question is how much $$$ is that small bit of extra performance potential worth? Only an individual shooter can determine that.
I wonder what it would cost to take a current S&W, have all the MIM parts replaced with fitted billet parts, have the action tuned with all those new parts, make sure the cylinder has no forward or aft play, or runout. Then have the barrel cylinder gap adjusted to minimum spec? How much would it cost to have a second one done up that way in 9mm since the Korth can do both with a spare cylinder? Presumably the same cost for a tuned up .357 L frame, and a tuned up 9mm L frame.
A Korth with spare cylinder can be had for about $4500 (yeah it’s a lot of money). Could you get two S&W’s turned out with equal precision and actions from a good gunsmith for less? I’ll bet it would be a toss up.