The slide is moving fairly slowly, and tends to "ka-chunk" back and forth. Most guys who shoot them seriously have gone to a commander size (really 4", up to 4.25") slide to reduce slide weight. Wilson was one of the guys on the forefront of figuring out how to make a 9mm 1911 as reliable as possible. A 5" works, but maybe not as well as the smaller ones. Just the opposite of a .45, in that sense.
Put everything against the clock. This debunks a lot of myths. We have mixed speed, accuracy, reliability in the conversation...
The 4 1911s/2011s below are as different as I could pull off the wall. Akai Limited 40, STI Marauder 9mm, Kimber Raptor II, Sig C3 Compact.
Speed. Maintaining A zone at 7 yards, my fastest splits are with the Marauder at around 0.12. I have north of 50K rounds through this gun and not a single malfunction. The only other gun equally as fast for me is the Benelli M4 that I can also get to 0.12. I can get an AR down to 0.10 on rare occasion.
Point here being you are not going to outrun the gun when it is set up correctly.
The Akai stays around 0.14 - 0.16 due to major power factor. The Raptor is about the same speed though the A zone % may drop a tad (b/c of me, not the gun). The C3, with that short slide and alloy frame, is the slowest simply because it is the snappiest. The C3 has the fastest cycle time but the slowest splits.
@Gooldylocks is spot on when talking about spring tuning. This will affect speed, accuracy, and reliability. Too slow of a spring and you are waiting all day for the sights to come back. Too fast and it will push the nose down and you will be waiting for the sight to come back
up. When you get a 1911 buy a spring pack and go up and down the weight scale. The differences are significant. You will probably need different springs for different ammo.
On a gun like the C3 the cycle time can be so quick that it will come forward before the magazine has elevated the next round to the lips and you will get a jam. Other than old, worn out mags this is the only place I have seen the need for magazine spring tuning on a pistol.
Here is a good video on recoil spring tuning with some slo-mo shots demonstrating the above. I want to make the point about personal preferences. Some people prefer a snappier feel. Some people really like a sluggish feel and will use 147s in a 9mm to achieve this. Line up a bunch of GMs and you will see different preferences. Just go out and have fun experimenting. Against the clock, of course. I keep repeating this because perception about what is happening in those hundredths of a second may be quite different than what the clock says.
An interesting design note... the Akai is stroked. The difference in feel when the slide comes all the way back is quite noticeable. It's softer. My splits are barely faster when using a stroked versus/unstroked gun. However, I can go back and forth between minor and major power factor (USPSA one day and steel challenge the next) and not have to change springs. I should change them, but I don't have to for the gun to function just fine.
Draw speed. Whether it be mediocre me or Latham or any of my friends that are on the US team, slide length makes no difference in draw speed. If it does, you may need to work on your draw technique. Sometime people let their elbow go too far from their body at the beginning of the draw stroke and that can slow things down. When chasing M in production I went from a G17 to a G34 and thought for sure time to first shot would be a bit slower. Not true. With that lesson in mind, when I went from the Marauder to the DVC 3G I expected time to sights on target to be the same and it was. In both cases of going to the longer slide my scores on 50 yard shots went up right away. The only practical difference is for concealed carry, where just 0.5" can make a huge difference.
What all of this means is that you need a shot timer, lots of springs, some good instruction, and as many different 1911s as you can possibly afford.
To answer the OPs questions, STI has some great choices. I have 1 for every day of the week and have never had to send one back. I know people that have and the customer service has been great. If going custom I would pick Atlas or Akai, in that order.
i just did 11° crown to flush muzzle and bushing its avail for grab
