I have two 92 compacts. In both guns, the barrel rests visibly off center in the slide:
To the left (from shooter's POV):
To the right:
Both guns shoot great, and I see nothing to indicate this affects accuracy. Noticed the lean when I got my first compact almost a year ago. Did some research, and apparently this is a "thing" with 92s. So I wasn't surprised (or concerned) when I saw it in my second compact.
But the question remains: how can these guns hit POA (and mine do) when the line of the bore isn't aligned with the front sight?
It's been discussed at length on the Beretta forum, with no clear consensus that I could see. There's some belief that under forces of recoil, the barrel centers prior to the bullet exiting. And there's some belief that the offset is constant along the whole barrel (i.e., it's not angled), so POI is only off by only a mm or two--which isn't enough for most shooters to notice.
I really don't know. And I really don't care, as long as the guns can shoot... but in a world where barrel-slide lockup is seen as the holy grail of accuracy, it's interesting that 92s can shoot so well with their cockeyed barrels and seemingly half-assed lockup. Thought it would make for an interesting discussion.