4. With moon clips or speedloaders, you do not have to be Jerry to be as fast as most people are with magazines. Revolver reloads can be very, very fast with only a modest amount of practice. The only way to get "orders of magnitude" in the speed difference is if you're counting hundredths of a second.
Perhaps, I should be clearer. I've shot with mags and speedloaders in matches. With my 6 shot revolver, I carry three speedloaders on my belt for. For a typical stage, with 8 to 9 targets - two shots each - I have one reload with my Glock. With my revolver, I had minimum of two reloads.
If I am in a horrible intensive fight - with my Glock 17 - I have 18 on board and another 17 in one extra mag, easily carried on the other side of my belt. That's 35 rounds which I can access with one reload. With a 6 shot 686, I have six on board. Two reloads to get to 18 while the Glock is still in the fight. Tom Givens calls this time in the fight. To equal the rest of the Glock load, accomplished with one reload - this is an SAT question, when your train gets to Cleveland, how many reloads did you have to do to equal the 17?
Also, carrying one 17 mag is much easier than a belt festooned with three speed loads for concealment. Not being Jerry - I'd bet that the average shooter is much faster in reloads of a mag (drop with one hand), insert with other as compared to the revolver reload. Most folks are not carrying a gun designed for moon clips, nor would practice to come up to speed.
I really don't see why a SW 686 weighing 39 oz and 6 or 7 shots compares to a Glock 17 at 31 oz loaded with 18 available rounds if you move beyond the single mugger paradigm.
As far as small gun recoil and carry. The reasonable comparison is something like a G42 vs a lighter weight J like a 642. I recently ran about 120 rounds of various 'power' in a 642 and a G42. the +p 38s have a much more significant kick than the +p 380s. Not for the novice. You could carry a steel J but most folks find they are uncomfortable in a pocket. In fact, mild wadcutters are recommended by some pros as being the most useful J defense round. Low recoil and good wound characteristics.
So, if wheel gun carry is nostalgia, I'm not in for nostalgia for lethal force, life and death usages. I have a friend who is a national revolver champion who used to come in second to Jerry and won plenty of matches on his own. His EDC is a semi (which he shoots well). In fact, sometimes he and I were the only gun folks shooting a revolver. Thus, I brag that I came in second to a national champion (but I also came in last!).
If semis are banned by President Beto, then I would carry a revolver and feel reasonably ok for most circumstance but not optimal. It comes down to the reason - nostalgia vs. utility. To come up to equal utility with a revolver beyond the single mugger begone scenario, the revolver folks have to go to modified guns, extremely intense training and a less comfortable concealement for equal rounds.