"It's all about shot placement" probably is THE bogus argument accepted as wisdom regarding pistol ammo choices.
Fist of all, unless you hit a central nerve system, most body shots, even head shots can be just as good as the other if it falls in 8~10 ring.
So, unless you are saying you aim specifically for the central nerve system 100% of the time, you're just relying on volume of body being destroyed. That's not really using "shot placement" to make your weaker round count, if you are just making linear cavity in a general center of a body mass, is it?
Second, you can't even target the central nerve system all the time. You shoot at whatever body part that is available to you. It can be an arm. It can be a foot seen from underneath a car.
Third, "shot placement" is a moot point of a 380ACP may not even reliably penetrate a skull. Yes, they can penetrate a skull, but just not reliably as a 9mm. A 9mm JHP likely would penetrate better at some less than desirable angle than 380ACP.
So, using "shot placement is everything" to justify 380ACP is just like saying "I am confident in making first shot hit on a central nerve system target under all conditions, and I somehow know that those targets will alawys be exposed to me." Put it that perspective, how realistic does that sound to you?
It does not sound so realistic to me, unless you're James Bond, and not the Bond from the recent film where he had lower hit ratio than Money Penny.