A .22 almost killed President Reagan...
Yes it did. A .22lr has a little more power than a .25 and the .22 bullet being made of lead will fragment more (generally). It was the fragements that got the Gipper. A .25 is jacketed and even a hollow point may not even expand. Most .25’s you see are really cheap POS’s. I had one and just releasing the slide could make it go off. 1970’s era ghetto pimps swore by them.
All a .25 has going for itself is extreme concealability. A 380 has almost the same concealability with twice the punch. Neither are ideal though and both are better than nothing.