Note that Aaron's reply in the FAQ thread basically was that noise (not from distance) only cause wireless devices to not get their wireless bonus and that the device will still be connected wireless to it's PAN and the Matrix as a whole (so even in heavy rain your imaging device will still get the live camera feed from your on-board mini-camera on your smartgun which let you shoot around corners - you just need to take a simple action to eject the clip instead of a free action and you no longer get your +1 or +2 dice pool modifier).
(of course with the disclaimer that he might be wrong and noise actually remove devices ability to transmit at all. There is also the possibility that noise generated from jammers might be "different" as jammer's fluff describe that it is used to block wireless and radio signals).
Yeah, I keep forgetting they lowered the relative damage of the 2055 for some reason...
If you are skilled enough then Light Pistols are very competitive with Heavy Pistols. For example, Colt America L36 deal as much damage as Colt Government 2066 but come with +1 accuracy (which have the potential to deal one extra DV). With an external smartgun Colt America deal 1 DV less than Ares Predator V but have +2 accuracy (which have the potential to deal two extra DV).
But yeah... you need a dice pool of some 20+ dice before it start to matter more than occasionally (and even then; spending 4 dice calling shots to vitals is on average far better than going for net hits to reach your accuracy limit anyway)
For people that don't like to use wireless smartgun (and have a dice pool of maybe 15 dice or less) I'd say Ruger Supwer Warhawk is very hard to beat. Higher DV, more AP, no progressive recoil no matter how you decide to read recoil rules.
... and your datajack still lets you shoot around corners...
It does?
