I have been a fan of sig, hk, and used the xd45 and xd40 in the past. Never had an issue with any of them. Talking thousands and thousands of rounds. I dont care for how the glock feels in the hand.
I have shot lots of XDs and they all performed flawlessly. That's most important. If I was going to be a hater, I'd mention two preferences-
1. I think XDs are ugly. I'd personally rather have a glock or m&p.
2. I think the grip safety is absolutely pointless. In fact, dare I say it's ridiculous. I would personally never carry a gun with a grip safety for self defense. I love 1911s, but wouldn't Defense carry for same reason. A few good reads on this subject. Most notably the guy from ar15.com that got into the shoot out with his 1911 and got shot in the hand. His failure to be able to activate the grip safety after being shot in the hand (which is a statistically common place to be shot) caused him to do a slap rack drill and eject a live round onto the ground.
The hand statistic is surprising (taking your word for it), but makes sense if you consider using your hands to fight or take the weapon from an aggression.
The grip safety on the XD is pointless, and in some cases can be a serious problem/liability.
The XD actually has some rather serious ergonomic problems. There is the aforementioned grip safety, which can provide some difficulty when attempting to manipulate the gun in certain ways. Also, the "step" in the profile of the slide can cause some serious issues with trying to rack the slide hard, and at speed. It can just be difficult to grab on to sometimes, and in some cases your fingers can hit the step and your hand loose it's grip of the slide. The XD-M is a MASSIVE improvement in ergonomics over the original XD/HS2000. Considering that, there is kind of no point for the XD to even be in production anymore. It's like offering carbs or FI on a brand new production car...
Your opinion only. The XD is an extremely popular handgun and I rather doubt it would be so if it had, as you claim, "rather serious ergonomic problems." Actually, many consider its ergonomics a vast improvement over the Glock. These "issues" you claim sound more like user error, and can be claimed about any firearm. The mag release on the AR could be claimed to be an "ergonomic problem" as well as it can easily cause a shooter to inadvertently drop the mag if unfamiliar with the functions of the rifle. I always found it to be a "flaw," but mainly because I don't like the design.
But to contend that the XD has "serious problems" is laughable simply because it has been one of the best selling and highly regarded handguns since it's introduction.
By the way, the XD was chosen as the best replacement when the SAPD was looking to replace it's Glock 22s; the only reason M&P was chosen was because S&W offered the city such a considerable deal on its pistols. Plus, there was some bias towards buying a weapon made in Croatia, despite the fact that county has a great reputation for building firearms (possibly even better than this country's!). It's sad that such ignorance exists, but it's been clearly evident against the AK for decades which still to this day causes a lot of uninformed people to claim that rifle is inaccurate and other erroneous and baseless accusations that simply have no basis.