I have wondered why 32 caliber pistol and revolver cartridges were ever popular in the first place. Maybe it is due to the small size of the pistols chambered in that cartridge. Wish I had a picture of a K frame next to this I frame. The seller claimed the original owner, a relative, use some sort of Reserve Policeman. This pistol is about the size of a kid's toy pistol.
Recoil with factory ammunition is almost non existent, and factory ammunition moves my gong target plate no more than a .22lr. Which means, when the gong target has a lot of hits, unless I hear the ping, I can't tell if I hit the thing. This is not exactly inspirational for a self defense round. However, I suspect the original owner purchased it because the pistol was so compact, and it was a firearm. Few Cops ever get into gun fights. A shooting bud is an ex Highway Patrol Officer, and I was surprised to find how indifferent the average Cop is to firearms and to shooting the things. If it were not for qualification, few on the Police force would shoot a firearm at all. Bud went to the house of one of his troopers, pulled the Department issued shotgun from parked squad car, and it was rusted shut. It could not be racked!
I occasionally see Pardini's chambered in 32 S&W Long at Bullseye Pistol matches. Pardini's have interchangeable uppers, pop on a new top, stuff in the appropriate magazine, and bang away in a different caliber. The 32 S&W Long is superbly accurate out to 50 yards and the recoil is not much more than a 22 lr. Recoil absolutely is an accuracy killer, everyone's 22 lr scores are higher than with the 45 ACP.
New cartridges are introduced, not so much to benefit the shooter, but to increase profits to the corporation, and so there have been several iterations of Super 32's, Magnum 32's, and as far as I am concerned, they have all been duds. Sure the 32 caliber round can be pushed as fast as a 357 Magnum, but the blast, recoil also goes up, and the fun nature of a 32 cartridge goes away. And, just as the old saying is
"There is no replacement for displacement.", if you want to do more than punch holes in paper, that is just as true in cartridges as in combustion engines.