The other thing is carry weight...
There are .38Spl snubbies that are lighter than .357s. My personal snubbie, a very early model Charter Arms Undercover, is part steel, part aluminum. Carry weight is lower than an all-steel, higher than a true aluminum frame, and lower than any practical .357 snubbie.
There's three things to be said in favor of a "crazy recoil" .357 snubbie:
1) Some people really can handle that level of recoil;
2) If you're heading into Black Bear country and just plain have to carry hard-cast .357s "just in case", you *can* do it;
3) Some people load their .357 snubbie with four rounds of a good .38/.38+P, and load a .357 monster as the last load. Once the gun is dry, recovery for the next shot is a non-issue and that final wallop tells you you're dry and better come up with a "plan B" real quick
.
That said, the idea of shooting .357 from a gun as light as my Charter seems insane. It's on par with a Taurus TI snubbie, and heavier than the S&W Scandium .357 snub.
Jim