Then there's the unsupported likes/dislikes and that's where things get ugly.
Very much so.
That's just my opinion but it has some logical basis. My preference for Rugers is based on experience and very limited funds for more expensive options. I don't particularly care for the 1911 but like the Browning HiPower(both designed by JM Browning) but that bias is based on the fact that Dad carried a "liberated" HP during WW2 because he believed it was a better option.
and comments like this just verifies the above.
I think a lot of it is simply, people make a choice, for whatever reason, and everything else becomes inferior in their minds, since they didnt choose it. Very often, there is little or no actual experience with the other choices, as is often evidenced by comments made, and that doesnt seem to be important, just that they dont like it for whatever reason.
Id say if your choice works reliably, and you shoot and manipulate it well, you done good.
If you have little or no experience with the other types, then you have an opportunity to learn, and expand your horizons, and it would be in your best interests to do so, as best you can.
I think youll find in the long run, as long as the choice is reliable and shootable, theres really little difference between them, only that they are "different". If something is truly lacking, its not usually the guns.