I am considering carrying my .357 more often. It is a S&W scandium with a 3 1/8th inch barrel so it gets pretty good muzzle velocity compared to a snubby. It gives about 50% more energy than a typical 9mm and about twice as much as a typical .380.
One possible advantage is that being a revolver it has no slide. In really close quarters a slide might not be able to cycle adequately and the pistol would jam after one shot.
The downside for the S&W is only five shots. Yes, it kicks.
Many years ago a LEO friend was checking a burglary alarm at a Pharmacy and encounter the prep. The prep took off running with the Officer catching him after a foot chase. They got into a struggle and the Officer fell down with the prep on top of him. My friend said he is not sure why he went down. He said it could have from the slick grass they were on or he was overpowered. Anyway he is flat on his back with the prep on top of him beating on him. Fearing for his life he drew his S&W Model 29 loaded with 44 Special reloads, jammed it into the attackers lower body and pulled the trigger.
What happened next was totally unexpected. He said the gun went "pop" instead of a loud bang and my friend feared he had a misfire. He was about to pull the trigger again when the prep said "You shot me" and stopped his attack. Backup arrived along with EMS and the prep still fought the officers before being transported to the hospital.
The internal damage to the prep was massive. The gunshot went into his liver and passed completely through his body, The bullet was not recovered. The "pop" was the result of the muzzle of the gun being jammed so tightly against the preps body that all of the muzzle blast (fire, burning and unburnt power) went inside his body. The Doctors almost succeeded in killing the prep. Over the next two weeks he underwent surgery at least four times as the Doctors removed more and more of his liver. He ended up losing either half or 2/3 of it. He was a parole violator from California and when he finally healed up enough they sent him back to California without filing any charges. The D.A. decided begin shot up was punishment enough.
The lessons he learned are:
One shot stops are a myth. My friend says he wished he had kept pulling the trigger as the prep as the prep was never physically shut down by the shot.
Big bores are not always better. At the time we read all of Keith and Skeeter Skelton and believed big holes and the 44 Special. Back then the only 44 Special factory ammo was RNL so he was using reloads using a Semi-wadcutter bullet.
As a result he switched to carrying a S&W Model 27 loaded with hot factory 125 gr. JHP's.
Reloads are bad idea. This incident happened many years ago and while it was ruled a good shoot he was warned about carrying reloads in the future.
Later in his career he was involved in a 2nd shoot when a prep that was apparently planning on kidnapping and raping a nurse as they came off duty at a hospital tried to run him down when officers approached his car. He was underwhelmed by the performance of the 40 caliber Glock the department had switched too. He was only able to fire one shot which was deflected and hit the dash instead of the driver. A .357 Magnum would have probably went straight through.
This is one of the reasons I carry the Beretta 92FS. The extended barrel gives me reliability in close quarters combat. In your situation closing the distance would prevent the attacker from effectively using his knife. With the Beretta I can jam the muzzle against his and pull the trigger with the expectation the gun will keep functioning.
I carry Hornady's excellent 124 gr. +P XTP round as it gives me more power for deeper penetration.
As I said one shot stops is a myth. 15 rounds of 9mm greatly improves the chances of shutting the attacker down quickly.
I discourage your interest in the lightweight S&W. As you say it has a lot of muzzle flip from it's light weight and muzzle blast from the short barrel. Accurate, quick follow-up shots will be difficult. I would choose a steel K-Frame with 3" barrel which also gives you 6 instead of 5 shots. And practice, practice, practice.