Swedish born George Kellgren is the brains behind KelTec and their lead designer. He's sort of the John Moses Browning of cheap firearms having also designed such things as the Tec-9.

To their credit, some of the marketing for the new KT (or revamped if you will) was pushing it as a field gun rather than a defensive weapon. Potential users seem to be viewing it as the poor man's 5.7 more so than KT marketing it that way at this time.

(Check Elite Ammunition for the better 5.7mm offerings, runs about a dollar a round, some will indeed penetrate some soft body armor by virtue of velocity, which keeps them from being banned as AP by ATF. Fun fact.)

AMT had spotty history at getting anything, including 1911s, to come out of their hands working perfectly. The KT's look to be cheap enough, and should they fail, the current KT has good customer service.

Note that .22 mag is still cheaper than most centerfire ammo, though is close in price to 9mm FMJ. Also note that .22 mag gets the most impressive ballistics from rifles, not pistols, and even then it's used for shooting raccoons and such, and sometimes felt to be "pushing it" for use on coyotes.