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Sticking to the OP's point, handgun caliber bullets also imply handgun caliber powder loads. Most are half what a rifle uses, therefore, the effective range is considerably reduced.
Just because it's a larger diameter bullet does not mean it's more effective or creates a larger wound. Power does that, not diameter, entirely why the high speed (3000fps) 5.56 can have much more dynamic impact than a larger bullet - like the .380.
Another factor is that for the same weight, the smaller diameter bullet will probably have a better BC, fly flatter further, and retain energy better at longer distances.
The .45 Colt crowd likes to have a single caliber, one shot from the 5" handgun, another from the 16-18" rifle, but it doesn't make it perform like a .30-30. It will only have the incremental increase of the additional length of barrel, often less than 50fps per inch. Conversely, the rifle cartridge shot from a barrel short enough to be consider handgun length will still retain a great deal of the much larger amount of power the cartridge contains.
It's not about diameter of the bullet at all, it's about how much powder propels it. Unfortunately, the shooting public doesn't seem to have a grasp on that, which explains the current fascination with the .300BO. Big bullet stuck in an intermediate case means tradeoffs - you lose range and efficiency.
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