Surreal, I think you are looking at this strictly in a numbers in the game way, while Brev is looking at it from a real world point of view.
I think a legit question, that would also bring us a full circle back to the one that started this thread would be:
How would a Dual Wield Pistol stack against the SMG?
How would a Dual Wield Laser pistol stack against the SMG?
How would Dual Plasma and Dual Particle stack?
From what has been said, it looks like the SMG would (and possible should) beat all four. Yes? No?
The SMG would be able (and probably should) to beat out the conventional and laser pistols in terms of sheer firepower. The same is certainly not true of the plasma and particle beam pistols however (which both have auto-fire and do superior damage).
I am also not looking at this purely from the perspective of in-game statistics. The as is capabilities and writeups of the pistol and heavier class advanced weapons also factor into my argument as well, namely the uniform availibility of autofire. Unless the doubled damage rate of the former is lesser than the latter, regardless of this uniformity, dual wielding retains purpose and value.
