Another Colt fan here. There must be something wrong with my 6920, my blued Competition Model in .45 ACP and the stainless Competition Model in .38 Super I had. For everything I've read and heard about how Colt makes sub-par guns at premium prices, all of mine have been well put together, 100% reliable and fantastic shooters at good prices. And these are all recent production guns, within the last 5 years. (Full disclosure, I DID overpay for the 6920 because I bought it during the Banic for my 30th birthday. But then I had the Colt I wanted.)
Is Colt behind the market on their offerings? Quite possibly. I wanted a 1911 for a LONG time, and I really wanted a Colt, but Colt didn't make what I wanted until they introduced the Competition Model. Until then my options were an imported gun (yawn), a Springfield Armory (maybe), a pretty gun of questionable quality from a marketing company (Kimber), a pretty gun with well-known questionable internals and odd slide contours (SIG) and some others I've left out of the discussion.
They could always hire more people in their refinishing shop. I contacted them about 4 years ago to get in line....
They would do good to get back into revolvers. People are paying such insane prices for them, I have thought a time or two about selling some of them.
Thing is, the new production Colt revolvers are not, and will never again be the double V-spring action of the Colts of lore. Part of the allure, and part of their failing, is that beautifully intricate, hand-fitted, finely-polished and fragile lock-work. Yes, the Python is a thing of beauty, and built on the .41-caliber frame it's structurally a much more durable gun than any S&W K-frame .357 ever built. But internally it's archaic and steady use as a shooter WILL wear the hand and lead to heart-ache.