Pistols, at that time, didn't have great battlefield effectiveness in an outdoor environment. I'd imagine they were next to useless in the areas Simo served in. They're sidearms- meant for use in tight, close quarters, or if your other weapons fail, you pull that and hope for the best. Hm... y'know, swords were actually sort of like this. Not a lot of killing was done with swords- it was mostly spears and arrows that killed in battle before the widespread use of gunpowder. A sword represented many things- your position in society, often. Even the samurai, famous for their katanas, very rarely used them- they'd typically fight with a polearm or blunt weapon, because swords do not do much to a man in armor. Even some good cloth gambeson will protect from most cuts of the sword. I guess swords are so popular because *they're just cool.* It's too bad that they were more often used like "Shit, my axe broke! Ahhh there's a spearman coming at me, holy shit, maybe I can bash him away with my sword!" sort of thing.