Rossi 92 in 45colt as first/only/all purpose rifle

All other things equal, shorter barrels give better accuracy because they are stiffer. Read up on barrel harmonics to understand.
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All things are never equal.

Accuracy should be pretty close. The effects of a "stiffer" short barrel have a marginal effect on accuracy.
The positives of a longer barrel have to do with increased velocity and recoil dampening from the greater weight. Given this is a pistol caliber those gains will probably be relatively marginal as well.
There might also be a slight advantage with a longer sight radius.

I'd suggest picking barrel length, in this case, on how the gun feels.
 
I'd work as a 150 yard rifle if you load it warm & shoot it real well. The problem, as I see it, is that if you misjudge your distance the trajectory will contribute to misses, or worse, bad 'hits'.

This is from someone who loves the 45 Colt, owned the 16" version, loaded it hot & (generally) shot it pretty well. The eye opener for me came when I took it out and started shooting random targets at unknown ranges, across a 200 yard section of pasture with a few little dips and rises on it. Somewhere just past 125 yards, it became real easy to shoot dirt instead of my intended target.

I followed with my old iron-sighted 94 Winchester and destroyed them at will. The difference was startling and provided some insight as to why the 30-30 was seen as such a world-beater in its heyday.
 
I have a Rossi '92 with 24" bbl in 45 Colt and in Stainless Steel. It is a fantastic rifle. It is very accurate, and a TON of fun to shoot. It has 12 in the magazine, and 10 more on the buttstock. I would not feel undergunned with mine. I load and shoot some pretty hot 45 Colt loads and the Rossi'92 handles them with EASE, making it a pretty formidable rifle to face.

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Go ahead and google the Paco article, No doubt loaded to even just the somewhat less powerful Marlin level, the 45 is more powerful by a margin similar to the 357 compared to the 44. I will give the 357 higher marks, though, for slightly longer distance shooting accuracy. The short, fat bullets drop quickly. I prefer the 45 for its quiet, but 357 can kill well with a carbine as well. Get what you want. My 24 inch gun is a range toy. The 20 inch gun does what a pistol cartridge should do. Its easy to hit the target off hand, and carry is much easier. I will also say I much prefer the Marlin action.
 
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