All guns get a tiny dot of extreme pressure grease where the stop contacts the slide.
That's not a bad idea, I get lube in there while I grease the rails, myself ... I may make a point of it now, though, with one-handed backup plans in mind.
The slide latch isn't a sear, it just isn't designed to take the sliding/shearing motion over and over in most guns. Over-use of the slide latch as a slide release will over time decrease the ability of the gun to lock open on an empty mag, and can cause it to allow the slide to release if a magazine is inserted forcefully (some people think this is a feature, and it would be if it were 100% reliable) or when the gun is jarred.
So there's your mechanical reliability aspect of why racking is superior to using the latch.
The slide latch is in a different place on different guns (and sometimes isn't external or just doesn't exist), however the slide is in the same place on just about every autoloader designed for more than target work, and works the same way ... when the gun doesn't go shooty any more, yank the slide back to eject the empty and chamber a fresh round, if that doesn't do the job try a fresh mag and then yank the slide back. An empty magazine is a malfunction, of a sort, and you can drill in a simple sequence that works on just about any gun with practice and ingraining into muscle memory. You should be able to pick up just about any autopistol and run it the same way you can get into any car and drive it.
So there's the malfunction reason why racking is superior to using the latch.
The slide latch is a small piece of the gun for a reason, to prevent snags into or out of the holster and reduce the possibility that it will be accidentally lifted while firing. Finding it under stress may be harder than you think, I imagine most people here have never found themselves "reduced to their level of training" and imagine they will "rise to do their best" in an emergency. While I've been in less than one real gunfight, I've been in my share of hairy situations with someone's (sometimes MY) life on the line ... guess what, I was reduced to my level of training most of the time, with a few creative moments of inspiration here and there. And I'm not prone to panic, either.
So there's the training reason why using a gross motor skill (yank and release) is better than using a fine motor skill (find latch, push down, get back on target) ... feel free to add a bigger latch if you like, but I prefer my range guns to match my carry guns.