"Superior", in reference to firearm cartridges, entails a lot more than just theory and paper ballistic data (and the ever-present "ideal" marketing hype). The 22 Nosler accomplished those modest improvements to velocity thru cartridge design and longer barrels as I read it. And we agree that .22 bullets are speed dependent for their performance (speed kills). The heavy 22's have poor terminal performance and the light 22's with their velocity shedding BC's get too squirrelly at any substantial range. I've popped a lotta groundhogs with VMax's at medium ranges (close-600ish) with light-medium 22's out of 22-250's. They're ok. Close was more "exciting", tho'. And yer gonna hafta watch for thin jacketed bullets spinning apart with that velocity increase in that fast twist meant for heavier jacketed bullet types.
It's prolly just me, but in my old age I like some substantial gain and an absence of PITA if I'm gonna have another rig. Unless I get caught with the hot-runnin-wants after somethin'. Which does happen occasionally to us all. Poor slobs. I will admit, the "mini-.284" concept gave me a l'il pudgy. And yup, I'd bet it'll be 6.5'd in short order. Too bad about those 6.8 mags, tho'.
My personal fix for the AR Blues was a SCAR17s. We're still honey-mooning after a coupla years and yes, I had the hot-runnin-wants for somethin totally not necessary! Hehehe. d;^)
I don’t know that I’m instantly in love with the 22 Nosler but it does seem like a wwll thought out cartridge that offers us a few useful things. I think if I were to build a varminter, I would give it a chance. If I were building a SHTF gun, I’d probably stick with 5.56mm for ammo/brass availability. That being said, I remember during the last big panic, you couldn’t find 5.56mm or 7.62mm anywhere but hunting ammo was still on the shelves. Got me thinking that having an AR10 chambered in 7mm-08 or .243 might be a good idea. I would be very curious to see how this round performs when necked up to 6mm or 6.5 mm too. I also think it breathes new life into the aged yet venerable AR15 platform. Brass availability and a shorter barrel life are the only downsides that I see but the tradeoff is an exceptionally potent round in a lightweight AR15 platform.