I have always liked the Beretta 92 series pistols. They just look "cool" to me. My second or third pistol purchase was a model 92S and I really liked it even though I'm a lefty. I've had at least four of them, the original 92S (only gun that I've had stolen) a 1990's vintage FS (sold it off) and currently a stainless 92FS and another 92S. They are really large handguns when you remember that there chambered in 9mm. The 15 round magazine count isn't all that impressive in today's world either. But they have always been dead bang reliable and for myself they have a serious cool factor going on.
We differ in what we like. I have a 92FS, because it was willed to me. It, along with a few other items constitute firearms I would have never bought, but do not feel good about selling as they were family guns. To me a Beretta 92+- is a very non-ergonomic and clumsy weapon. But, thats just personal preference and I know it.
By the same token there were a few well-remembered items that I wish had come my way, but were traded/sold off including a humpback Browning shotgun (Okay I do have the Rem 1100 that replaced it) and a gold-receiver winchester 94 in 32 win. special. Dont even get me started about handguns....A Colt Diamondback and others were traded off as members of my family felt a certain way about firearms purchases. Cheaper was better and bargain store brand was always "just as good"....and in a few cases it was- but mostly not.
Anyways, I remember when the Beretta was adopted, or was being adopted...generally negative feelings in the Army among the servicemen I served with and (at the time) a feeling of it wasn't really going to happen. Followed by a "well, we haven't bought anything from Italy in a long time" after it was announced officially.
To me, there wasn't anything wrong with what the Beretta replaced. If the old stocks of 1911s were worn out, the Sig was a better choice to replace them. But, I was out of that uniform and in another by the time all that happened, and carrying a revolver for a number of years. Never felt poorly armed by that. Then carried a 1911 for a long time before being forced to carry a Tupperware offering for a time til i retired. And so it went.
But to each his own