“The .40 is over-pressured, inaccurate, and a solution to a problem that never really existed.”
The .40 is as accurate as the 9, any differences may be due to the gun, not the cartridge.
“9mm and 45 auto have always been more than capable of doing their job, if the shooter does theirs (hit the vitals)”.
Under ideal conditions that may be true but the 9mm had a very poor reputation as a “stopper”. This was essentially solved with improved bullet designs such as gold dots, and other “bonded” jacket types. These days I doubt there is much difference in wound effectiveness or barrier penetration between the 9mm, .40 or .45 with any of the top bullet designs.
I’d wager a .45 FMJ performs better than a 9mm FMJ.
Likewise a .45 JHP is going to outperform a 9mm JHP.
Modern 9mm loads are more than adequate stoppers.
I’ve shot thousands of rounds of 40 and 9. For whatever reason (and most experienced shooters agree with me), it’s harder for me to stay on target with a 40 than a 9.
I blame the extremely high PSI of the 40 along with the modern polymer framed guns. I’ve also owned several 10mm guns and can stay on target better with that cartridge than a 40 FWIW.