Talk about a hornet's nest being kicked up- the lore of the 1911 is certainly strong and everyone that's bought into the siren call no doubt has very strong opinions that are neither right nor wrong essentially but based off of their own experiences/preferences and I'm not trying to dismiss anyone else's opinions but I for one am a big fan of the 1911 pistols and your budget of $2,200 puts you smack dab in the middle of so many amazing products. You can get a very high quality 1911 at near half of your budget but would you be able to expand what you're looking for so we're not making assumptions?
As an example, I reckon that many of the knowledgeable folks here might change their opinions whether you were looking for a 5" (Government Model), 4/4.25" (Commander/quasi Commander Model) or even a 3.5/3" (Officer Model). Heck even the caliber you were looking for would likely factor in. For me at least- I'd have to know that to make a respectable recommendation. To illustrate my point- I saw some recommendations being made for Les Baer. No doubt they have a very high quality product but just like anyone else- they have their own quirks especially with their build mentality of being 'hard fit' which isn't right or wrong but just... different I'd say. Some folks love them for that and seek them out for that reason alone and others avoid them for the same reason. If you look at the 1911 forums, there's a lot of grief & praise mentioned about their sub 5" models not being able to 'slingshot'. Now I don't know if that's still the case but recently at least, that was due to Les Baer using nonproprietary frames (again, not saying that there's anything wrong with that but just something to know about Les Baer's pistols to be aware of) and as I understand it so something that would play into what I'd recommend. Still a very high quality product by all means but if you were looking for something smaller than a 5" Government model, it's just something to be aware of and to talk about with the manufacturer before making your purchase.
Again at your budget- if you make a purchase towards the top end- from my experience what you'll gain, or should expect to at least is a higher quality of frame to slide fit (as compared to the $1-1.5K offerings) as well as, if nothing else, a significant reduction of MIM parts. Not saying that MIM parts wouldn't answer the mail for your purposes but something to be aware of is all for what you're putting the extra money towards. At that price range, you should also see an undercut with the trigger guard and also front strap checkering choices. Some folks offer different variations of that but the standard offerings I'm aware of is 20 LPI (typically used by Springfield) 25 LPI (most everyone else at that price point) and 30 LPI (Typical of Les Baer if my memory is still intact). That will make a heck of a lot more of a difference than FCS in my experience but regardless, I hope that illustrates my point and you gained something from that.
So long story short and not to dismiss anyone else's opinion- did you have an idea of what caliber, barrel length (full sized could mean 5" or longer in 2024 I suppose), or purpose you were hoping to achieve with your upcoming 1911 purchase? Last thing I'll say for this post- I don't think you can go wrong with either the TRP or Valor but rather suggest that once you buy into the 1911 affliction, you'd notice the differences much more strongly- like while I like the TRP personally, I'm not a big fan of the 20 LPI and while I think Dan Wesson is the best deal in town for the price point I'm also not a fan of the changes they made to the current Valor line lately (despite being a HUGE fan of their previous Valor model) and despite being a fanboy there- to be honest, the current DW Valor model doesn't offer the FCS either per your post BUT if you're ok with a rail, their 'Specialist' model does offer that and I believe that their 'Pointman" models do as well.
-LD
I’m looking for a 5in gov model in 45ACP.