This is of course a matter of personal taste, but since you asked I'll tell you my veiw!

I'm not very fond of false sideplates for the simple reason that I feel they try to make the gun into something it isn't. Either it's a sidelock or it isn't, and although false sideplates give you room to have engravings done, they just don't do it for me. I'd rather enjoy the gun as it really is if you know what I mean. Maybe it's silly, but the side plates being fake kind of brings an otherwise good gun down a bit IMO. No matter who made it.

Btw, I see Searcy has a new look to his website!

Erik