The nail has been struck firmly on the head. Years ago, Beretta & Sig managed to land significant military contracts. However, the metal framed pistol as a general issue military sidearm is a dying breed and they will probably be the last. You will note that the HK Mk23 doesn't have a metal frame and works just fine under extreme conditions and has a service life at least as long as a metal frame.

The metal frame weapons simply can't compete on a cost basis-at least so long as the frames are machined. Instead of machining a gazillion frames, a given number of molds are vary carefully machined and then put into service casting polymer. Also, there are actually some actual user advantages to the polymer frame, or at least some of them. I'm personally not wild about the ones where the frame rails are also polymer.

I've heard from several sources that S&W will cheerfully build metal frame 4 digit guns for LE customers if the order is large enough-like the California Highway Patrol model 4006 order a couple of years ago. If the money is guaranteed up front, no problem. One of the things most have to realize is that the MSRP is about a 60% markup from what the manufacturer actually gets from the distributor/jobber for his product. So that piece you just paid $1K for, netted the maker ~$400. From this, he pays employees, buys ads, pays taxes, insurance, interest on loans, dividends to stockholders, buys new tooling & machinery, pays for material to build more guns, funds product development, fixes leaky roofs....

When the time came to retire our 1006s, we could have bought the guys who needed new guns enough 4006s to match the other guys or we could buy everyone an M&P40, plus gear and have a few bucks left over. Simple choice, and since our average scores went up, a good one for our purposes.

There's a whole lot more people willing to spend ~$400 on a gun than ~$1100. Also, quite bluntly, a whole lot of folks would be a lot better off to spend the 4 bills on the weapon and the the rest on ammo for practice.