Not disagreeing with your statement.
I think the OP isn't saying dust or dirt is causing the failure. If he is, that probably isn't correct that his P229 is failing because of dust/dirt.
While grease required, the P series shouldn't not be working because of dirt/dust. A P series functioning correctly is going to run as well as others...
When MAC did that pretty awful VP9 review where he was literally throwing the VP9 at a steel target for some unknown dumb reason, the pistol broke. Well, so would probably the main battle rifle of the US and any other pistol.