I should have said reliability instead as it would have been clearer. To me reliability is a perfomance issue.

I've got a sidelock and it doesn't fire all the time. When I'm hunting I do want the gun to go bang. I just would not have taken a sidelock out this morning with the constant drizzle. Perhaps that's why it started at first. I really don't know. I do know that's why Tony Knight got started into making muzzleloaders. Some of his customers complained and the next year they took some of his early production. The guns he made at first apparently sold fast enough that there was a market for it.