Hey Cliff,
That's been my experience as well. Everybody wants to cheer about how wonderful the 2d Gen Colt Percussion guns were/are. From an appearance standpoint, they look/looked really good. Internally, not so much. All the usual Uberti Problems have been present. I like your observation that Colt/Imperato may not have thought anyone would be firing them. Collector stuff only. Shame really.
Colt purists however, just won't accept the warts.
Coffinmaker