Putting aesthetics and tradition (...guns should be made from steel becuase thats the way it always was...) aside for a second it makes absolutely no sense to make the Gen 3's anymore from a cost standpoint.
On top of that, i have owned andextensively shot about 2 dozen Performance Center autos over the last 16 years, including CQB's , 5906 PC's, Shorty .45's and Shorty 40's, 6906 Recons, Shorty 9, etc.. These were all beautiful/awesome guns for sure. I now have 2 9mm M&P's, and have had a smattering of others in .45. NONE of the PC stuff shoots any better (in some cases they shoot worse) than the M&P's . I know i will be accused of bad things for saying this but its fact.
M&P's are real good polymer, cheap (relative to Gen 3) and easy to produce kick *** pistols.