With a pistol, it usually isn’t about power - it is about placement.
Except for the .25 ACP - that thing is nearly useless. Even if you shot him in the heart, tour enemy might kill you before he finally figures out he is dead...
I picked up a little Jiminez (AZ company) 380 for a pocket pistol, under $200. Then took it to my gunsmith for an action job. Cleaned it up very nicely, shoots as well as a $500-700 pistol. The mechanisms are essentially the same in all of them.
Easily concealable, light-weight. if I need it, it’s there, and, yes, I have had it out ‘clearing’ vacant homes in my business.
The brother of a friend I grew up with carried a little .25 ACP with him when he went out on the town. I laughed at him and told him “That’s not going to kill the guy you shoot you know.” I still remember his reply to that - “Nope, but it gives you a hell of an advantage in the fist fight that follows.”