I understand that civvy Berettas or maybe even police ones, are not gonna see the conditions that the M9's do. But you mention police getting rid of them, could that be because of something like, following the latest trends(with grant or confiscated money), caliber up-sizing, etc? And I can't see how any handgun in that dusty sandy environment can always be 100% without extreme cleaning, like, notice how tight those barrel hoods fit the slides on the Glocks and Sigs? What would one grain of sand in that gap do to the lockup? Etc? I don't think that probably Sigs and Glocks have the widespread exposure that the general issue M9 has, worldwide in US combat.
I bet their "perfect numbers" would slide a bit if they spend 5 years in that environment. Still, IMO I would have let the troops that like the 1911, keep them over there, or reissue them! With ball ammo, the bigger is better!