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I don't think preference comes into play here, the troops used what they were ISSUED. The P-38 was a more modern design to take advantage of modern manufacturing techniques-stamping, e.g. Same with the MP-38. Not familiar with German practices regarding officers purchasing their own equipment, always thought that was more of a British practice. Pretty sure the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS got the pick of equipment, the rear echelon, police and security units got what was left over.
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It's probably some of both. Remember that toward the end of the war, the German armed services (let's not forget the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine and all the other agencies as well) were grabbing essentially every warm body they could find - even as officers. For example, consider the various foreign national SS divisions. It would have been, to say the least, problematic to demand that each of them somehow source, on their own, suitable sidearms. So as a matter of expedience, it seems necessary that the German services would have the capability of issuing sidearms to those officers who, for whatever reason, were unable or unwilling to purchase them on their own.