There's no question the S&W designs are way more robust. The Colts are much more delicate and go out of time/break much easier. The whole stacking thing only lives in the minds of production Smith "just as gud" owners. The PPs, PSs, DSs, Cobras, Officers, etc. stack so little it's hard to even notice unless side by side. The Snake guns you're imagining it. The pull on a Python or Anaconda is buttery smooth, and you would need some machinist instruments to detect stacking.
That said, the S&Ws can be made just as smooth (maybe smoother) with some ju-ju I know nothing about, but I've felt DA pulls on custom S&W that will beat a production Python...just my opionion.
Honestly, if they made them today like they did in the '60s and '70s they probably would cost more than $10k. I can't find it online (maybe in one of my dad's many $200 coffee table books) but I remember a series of pictures of them making pistols in the Colt factory. The first series were of a wall of like 30 polishing wheels with thirty guys sitting in front of them, and each one a little finer grit. When the first guy was done he'd pass it to the next, and the last guy would pass off a frame with a mirror finish to the guy who started the bluing process. The next series was the guys putting the guts of the pistols together (also with polishing wheels and tiny files), hand fitting all the parts together. It was insanely labor intensive. Would make any LEAN Mfg. guy puke.
They gone, and they gona stay gone. All my Dad's collection will maybe go up and down like stocks, but the trajectory will be up, because no one would manufacture like that again. You would go broke.
I have a couple of Korths too (Kombat, Klassic, Sport) used but boxes and paperwork. Think Snake Gun beauty with S&W robustness. They're stupid expensive for a new one, and the new ones are fugly, but they're still making them one at a time by hand like that.
Honestly, the '60s and '70s were a golden age of firearms production in America, and I doubt we'll ever see the like. I do think that the better and cheaper CNC we get we will see quality go up, but we're still gona pay for it...
