Yeah the Match Champion is a hell of a six shooter. Their moonclip revolvers aren't quite there yet, so I don't think the 929 is in any danger of getting eclipsed as the Go-To gun for USPSA, but stranger thinks have happened. I think if they really sank some money into the USPSA market they could convert all 12 revolver guys.
Their survey should have included trigger pull, or whether trigger work had been done.
A revised American with a steel frame and the manual safety would have me running a Ruger semi-auto for the second time in my life (my first was handgun was a P95). One that had the bells and whistles like a Q5 steel-frame Match would be the heat. Slide cuts for carry optics?
I can see Ruger making headway in USPSA Production with a quality built gun. Why? Because folks are running just about everything near the top of production right now Glocks, Q5s, Berettas, CZs, Tanfos - it'd be easy to build something that worked in that vein.
I don't think Ruger wants to get into double-stack 1911s, nor should they. Between all of the ones out there only the STIs/SVIs remain consistent performers. STI just dropped the price on the new generation mags which are excellent, like duty ready out of the package, no tuning, etc. As I wear out old mag bodies, I'm replacing them with new style mags. They're way better and now VIP-length mags are 50 bucks and big-sticks (170mm) are 75.
And dudes, life is way better with Alpha Sierra on Ignore.
Ruger probably makes 1000x more selling little pocket rockets nobody actually shoots than they ever will with some IDPA specific blaster.
My Caspian builds run / ran as good as my STIs, and are FAR easier to work on. Trouble is, nobody is making a decent magazine for them anymore. My Craig / Caspian F15 Fantom is much thinner than a VIP. It’s also noticeably shorter in height, yet only gives up one round.
With the popularity of the EDC X9, I think a similar sized Ruger build at half the price would sell well.