Excellent post!
I have been carrying a RIA officers 1911 for the past 10 years and it has been trouble free. My one complaint being from the Peoples republic of California was my 8 round limit. We now live in Oregon. The north is almost as bad as Cal. The southern part is more conservative. The state is a shall issue state, I digress
I now carry a RIA Mid size TCM and are very pleased with it.18 shot load, minimum recoil ,very accurate. I compared my pistol with your description of your weapon and found both identical. very good trigger action, my thumb safety works easy on and off. Like yours it would lock on the last round. I dremelled the magazine lifter to allow the last round to chamber. It works all the time now. The sight needs attention. the rear is excellent but the front disappears when on the target. I carefully drill spotted the front sight and with a tooth pick filled the spot with white paint now visibility is excellent.
The pistol is loud and is a flame thrower. Which some people complain because the ball of fire could impair you night vision. Perhaps in a night fire fight of many rounds this would be so but on a defensive situation a double tap may not be too bad. Now can you imagine what it would sound and look like to the bad guy in front of you.?
By the way on the 29 of this month the U,S,Army is holding an industry wide conference of pistol manufacturers to present them with new requirement's;
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/07/...ntcmp=features
I believe Armscor has a contender here.