Well, Elmer Keith certainly thought a lot of the 44 Special also. Not only did he use it as the base for developing the 44 Magnum, if memory serves, he also developed the Keith Bullet for the 44 Special.
Yep, Old Elmer was great. I remember his articles and his book, "Hell, I was there", was great also. I simply love the accuracy of the .44 special, I can shoot the center out of targets with it all day long, and hit long range targets as well. Regardless of new calibers that have come along, the .44 special is still great.
In fact, Elmer used the .44 to push for the .44 mag cartridge.