First gun? I don't know why it is, but I see a ton of newbies at the range with an XD of some flavor as their first gun. And almost always in .40. Because newbies want "more" stopping power than 9MM, for some stupid reason when they should have just bought a 9MM. It's interesting to see. Because I see it ALL the time.
Basically, if you have a bunch of handguns and want to add another to the collection, get an XD. If this is your first handgun, bypass these things and get something better. And this is coming from someone that really likes the XD platform. I have one of the first XD's ever imported into the country 15 plus years ago. It has never jammed. It has a ton of rounds down range. I just feel that any of the other polymer fantastics are better guns.