RE: 1911s, it's not that any one thing about them is great, but taken as an aggregate, they're just about perfect. Probably the greatest thing about the gun is the trigger, which can be tuned to amazing levels. No other service pistol with the exception the SIG 210, can sport as great a trigger as a tuned 1911, nor the kind of accuracy a tuned 1911 can deliver. The latter part of the 20th Century created a different set of demands for service pistols, so the current crop, while excellent out-of-the-box, lack the versatility and tunability of the 19th Century-designed 1911.
Secondly, we all grew up in the shadow of Col. Jeff Cooper. Because there's no current gunwriter with Cooper's pure authority these days, it's hard to explain how powerful an influence he exerted on all of us...to borrow a phrase from my friend Ken Hackathorn, "Dude, he invented us!" Also remember that once Col. Cooper invented — more appropriately, "rediscovered" what Rex Applegate had started doing after WW1 — practical shooting, it became our primary shootng activity. No, "primary" isn't strong enough...it was our obsession. We took our techniques to first law enforcement, then to the military, and, in essence, the 1911 came along with us. Then there's the custom gunsmithing aspect, as well as the accessories market, whihc allow a level of "personalizing" that isn't possible with modern service pistols.
After a half-million or so rounds over a period of decades, the hand remembers the gun.
Michael B