Ah... well... gee... gosh... weren't we discussing Smith & Wesson???
It's a matter of opinion, but mine is based on long experience. After World War One some of the "little perks" started to disappear from Smith & Wesson's revolvers. Nothing really important, but nice - if you know what I mean.
During the Great Depression this trend slowed, but it slowly picked up again following World War Two, and went to high speed during the 1990’s to present. If you take a current gun apart and compare the innards and internal machine work to those that were made during earlier times the difference is obvious, and becomes more so as you go backwards in time.
As noted, a pinned barrel in itself is meaningless, as is for example the 4th screw that used to be at the top/rear of the sideplate, or the 5th screw in front of trigger guard that blocked the coil spring and plunger that used to tension the cylinder stop.
Now these missing features don’t mean that later production was junk – which it wasn’t and isn’t – but they are an indicator of reduced quality. I would be more interested in the serial number on a particular gun because it’s a rough indicator showing when it was made then the pin in the barrel, if there is one. But on the other hand if I’m looking at two identical revolvers (or mostly so) I will likely pick the one that’s pinned and I’ll very likely pass on anything that has a two-piece barrel. Others of course can make their own choice, and I sure hope they pick the latest one…
What the heck is is a
Rossis???