For a lot of folks, the "E" or not, is not an issue. SAAMI watered down the specs for .44 mag ammo about the same time, and most folks don't shoot high volumes of max loaded 300 grainers for their 629s. Still, the false perception continues that one should not shoot a lot of "legitimate" magnum loads from any S&W revolver, even tho this is not the case.
A slightly related tangent:
Would you mind documenting that claim that SAAMI changed a pressure spec for 44 Mag or any cartridge. I have seen lots of claims that SAAMI changed 357 Magnum and now you are claiming they changed 44 Magnum. I have yet to see proof that they changed either.
I believe this misconception comes from the introduction of a second official method to measure pressure. They started using the "new" piezo electric transducer method in the 70's in addition to the Copper or Lead Crusher method they had been using for decades. That resulted in a different number representing the same peak pressure. The development of the higher fidelity transducer method also showed that the peak pressure they thought the older crusher method was indicating was actually not truly the actual pressure in PSI. The crusher method was and still is a reliable and repeatable measurement, just not an accurate measurement of peak pressure that was assumed before the transducer showed them the error. How far off the crusher method was from the actual pressure as measured with the more advanced transducer method varied from cartridge to cartridge. With some cartridges that number stayed the same or changes very little with other it changed a fair amount and it could be in either direction up or down. Since for years most shooters and reloaders outside of the industry insiders did not realized there were two official but very different methods to measure peak pressure many people mistakenly thought SAAMI changed the values when gun writers and publication started using the new measurement system. I am pretty sure some gun writer did not even know the difference early on.
Also publications dating from the mid 1970's and earlier will report pressures in PSI when it was measured using the crusher method. When the transducer method was official accepted by SAAMI the crusher method units were changed to CUP/LUP (Copper or Lead) and the new transducer method used psi since it was closer to the truth. This has led to additional confusion.
Examples:
Transducer is lower than CUP
44 Remington Magnum: 40,000 CUP (Crusher), 36,000 PSI (transducer).
357 Remington Magnum: 45,000 CUP (Crusher), 35,000 PSI (transducer).
But this is not always the case some went up
380 ACP: : 17,000 CUP (Crusher), 21,500 PSI (transducer).
45 ACP: : 18,000 CUP (Crusher), 21,000 PSI (transducer).
And some are the same
38 Special: : 17,000 CUP (Crusher), 17,000 PSI (transducer).
45 Colt: : 14,000 CUP (Crusher), 14,000 PSI (transducer).
In all these cases the two values for each cartridge represent the peak pressure.
There is no way to safely change the pressure on an established cartridge. If you raise the pressure you blow up the old guns with new ammo. If you reducer the pressure then old ammo blows up new guns.
-pet peeve rambling.