The pistol I love the most is a Ruger Single Six. (It will be a poor trade for my father the day I get it, but it will give me fond memories for the rest of my life.)
The pistol I rely on is a G21SF.
To me, there isn't really a gun there when it is my hand. There are sights and a steady pull on a trigger. At some point, there is a bang and a flash of light. (If you really, really get into a focusing on the basics of the trigger pull it is not uncommon for your eyes not to blink until after recoil is in progress. Practice shooting is my zen.) It doesn't matter if it is irons, scope, red dot / single stage, two stage, set stage / wood, iron, polymer.
They are tools, for a purpose. I like the look of an old hand saw, even if it is rusted from hanging on a wall for twenty or fifty years. Sometimes I use the hand tools for the sheer pleasure of it. That doesn't mean I don't have multiple power saws for jobs.
To detract from one set of tools is to detract from them all. There are ups and downs to each and every tool in most scenarios when you change the variables. For instance, my perfectly free-floated CZ527 in SC had made a huge shift just taking it down to LA. Wood still can have issues with moisture and temp, where poly doesn't. Steel doesn't have as much (as far as frames/stocks are concerned), but could you imagine the weight of an all metal rifle or shotgun? And oddly, I've seen more cracked frames on steel framed autos than poly's. (14 or 15 to 1).
Metal rusts, wood rots, poly can have weird reactions with chemicals, etc., etc.
Right tool for the right job doesn't mean the same thing for every craftsman. But two craftsmen that use different tools for the same job doesn't mean that one is wrong or the other right in most cases. Sometimes, there is only one, but those times are quite rare. Live and let live (except goblins in your cave). Advice and experience should be tactfully used more than condescension and derision.
On that note, I'm not tacticool. I'm not old school. I'm practical. I buy guns like I buy tools: for specific jobs at specific times. And occasionally my wife lets one of either slide buy that I got on pure whim with no comment. My Mosin gets the same care that my SIG 556 gets. My Glock the same that my Beretta does.
If that whole things sounds a bit philosophical, it should. Every person that speaks the words "In my opinion" is speaking subjectively. Pretty literally. There needs to be more open attitudes. On both sides of a lot of fences. There is more than enough room for all of us in the same room at the same time. I've 'converted' more than a few 1911 die hards to go poly after shooting my Glock. And the best shooting handgun I ever shot was a heavily modded 1911.
As far as materials, grip angles, etc... think about hammering nails. Not every nail needs the same hammer. Not every nail is a straight down strike. And sometimes all you have is a wrench.
YMMV.
