Short barrel, you seem to be confusing the intended use of and philosophy behind private citizen concealed handguns and police duty pistols or military sidearms.
They are not accurate--none of them. The gun magazine writers measure the little guns' accuracy at 5 or 7 yards, and label that as the high percentage of distances self defense is activated. That may be true, but 7 yards is absolutely no measure of accuracy. You can chuck a rock and hit a target at 7 yards and it is utterly ridiculous to measure a gun's accuracy at that distance. It means nothing at all. They quote the 7 yard accuracy with the little 9's because they can't measure it at longer distances. That's one thing wrong with a tiny 9mm.
Just plain not true. My personal experience with the DB9, PF9 and PM9 is that they can produce accuracy equal to a service pistol if you do your part. Are they more difficult to hold onto? Yes. Does the smaller chassis make trigger control more difficult? Yes. Does the shorter sight radius handicap the shooter? Yes. But, are they capable of good mechanical accuracy? Absolutely. My DB9 made a ragged 3" hole in the head of a silhouette at 35 feet with 5 magazines, not one stray round. PF9 and PM9 are about the same.
More importantly, we don't need match grade accuracy from a defensive pistol. Most uses of defensive handguns are at or barely beyond contact distance.
The other thing, of course, is capacity. 6 or 7 rounds.
Which should be plenty for any "typical" self defense encounter. Yes, there are anecdotal examples of people needing a couple of 13 or 15 round magazines to mitigate the threat, but those are a tiny exception to an already profoundly rare occurrence. Do some reading, you'll find that the altercations are usually over in 1-5 rounds.
And, with the very short barrels, energy levels are insufficient.
Energy ain't the whole story, short barrels don't lose as much as you think, and ammunition manufacturers are catering to the new demand, making rounds that perform very, very well out of 3" and shorter tubes.
I'd much rather have my DB9 with modern ammunition than a P38 shooting ball ammo.
The nation has gone berserk over easy to carry pistols.
There is a good reason for it. Easily carried pistols get carried. Those that require large rigs and bulky clothing to conceal tend to stay at home. It's all about what a person deems an appropriate measure to mitigate a perceived risk. One doesn't take out and and pay for a $10 million fire insurance policy on a $220K home with $80k worth of contents. Similarly, a private citizen going about their everyday life in America is incredibly unlikely to ever need a firearm for self defense, let alone having to make dozens of accurate shots at extended ranges to preserve their own life. As such, most of us choose a defensive handgun that balances better in the cost/benefit analysis, the cost not being weapon price, but ease of carry & concealment.
Do I sometimes carry something more? Yeah. When I'm in the city with my wife and 3 kids in tow, I'll have my Glock 20 and a spare mag, because they are worth a little discomfort to me in the unlikely event that some active shooter situation plays out, and I need to pin the aggressor down while they egress. But just me? As a healthy, very physically fit and decent sized man in my early 30's, I'm not a likely target, so I don't even carry 100% of the time when solo. When I do, I feel that 7 rounds of .380 or 9mm from the P3AT or DB9 I drop in my back pocket is plenty.
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