H&K could have filled the niche. Better then a Glock and their shit triggers!
Nepotism and Fanboyism is a thing. Somebody thinks its the cool, in thing and they roll with it. When the Beretta was picked it was the in thing (the 1911's we had in the armory did need to be changed out, they were worn out and had done more then their fair share of warfighting). Was the Beretta bad? Nope, it was actually pretty good. The magazines we were given did suck (not sure who manufactured those but it wasn't Beretta).
We screwed over H&K, got them to build a manufacturing facility in GA and then didn't follow through with the contract.