I'm not familiar with a pistol bullet tapered at both ends, but the thinking behind wadcutters is, indeed, to cut the cleanest and largest hole possible in the paper for maximum scoring opportunity.
The velocities of most .38 target rounds (<800 fps) shouldn't cause much leading at all, but I don't have any first-hand experience with ported barrels.
As far as accuracy, I've had good results out to 50 yards outdoors (when I do my part) with wadcutters.