issue
My first experience with stainless was an issue M66, and I was astounded at how it reduced day to day maintenance. Work an incident in the rain or a monster shift, come home and collapse, and not have to worry about your revolver rusting in the duty belt/holster if you happened to forget to wipe it down and remove it before crashing. My next issue was a M686, and it was more of the same, less day to day worry about taking care of your sidearm. NOT carefree, but a good safety net if you slipped up a bit. The NPS rangers in the beach and saltwater areas were fond of them as well.
That said, my personal collection of handguns only has ONE stainless pistol, that a early S&W Mtn Gun in .44 mag. I like blue steel and walnut, whether in handguns or long guns as well. By example, the M27, or the Python (blued) were just gorgeous revolvers. But I recognize the advantages of stainless and synthetic.....just not drawn to it.