An interesting thread! At the risk of airing some dirty laundry, I may shed some light on this by simply mentioning that sales and marketing is often driven by producing something "new" as opposed to something "better." This includes something with your (the manufacturer's) name on it instead of the competitions. Ruger has been particularly bad about this, to the point of outright comedy at times. Some years back they began chambering some of their semi-auto pistols in 40 cal. Anyone familiar with the history knows this is a cartridge that was developed primarily by Smith & Wesson, and is correctly dubbed the "40 S&W." No big deal, but that's what ID's the cartridge. Ruger, on the other hand, just couldn't bring themselves to stamp the "S&W" on the barrel to identify the chambering. Instead, they stamped their guns with "40 ACP", a mythical, non-existent cartridge dreamed up by them to avoid the dreaded "S&W" moniker. Incidentally, "ACP" stands for "Automatic Colt Pistol" as in the 45 ACP and 38 ACP, the development of both of which Colt was intimately involved. This whole Ruger/WSM situation sounds like a repeat of the "not-invented-here" syndrome that drove the earlier incident.
Nothing wrong with the WSM, and I'd be hard pressed to come up with any reasons to recommend anything similar that Ruger is pushing right now. Frankly, if I were to put money on on which one you'll be able to buy factory ammo for from your local Walmart 10 years down the road, it'd be the WSM, hands down.
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA