“The modern ballistics make differences between the 9mm and 10mm moot at best.”
Not quite. I carry a 9mm in town, 10mm 220 grain hard cast for walks in the woods. Bullets tuned to hurt small soft bodied creatures don’t work so well on large tough creatures.
When I walk around the woods here in rural NW Florida I always stick a small but high quality .22 LR automatic in my pocket.
It does not hit hard but it hits hard enough for most things I might run across and in a pinch will do for feral dogs.
I probably should at least carry one of my Browning Hi-Powers but they require a holster and are much heavier.