I do get what Mr Lambert is getting at. He's a benchrest guy, and the cartridges in the past to his standard were limited by the quality of the bullets. It was basically 22, 6mm and 30 cal for his game back when. Even in my game, there wasn't a lot of options until the bullet design and quality improved. When Jimmy Knox, Walt Berger and Cauteruccio started putting out slippery Highpower appropriate bullets, we got the AR service rifle, the 7-08, 6.5-08 and the host of 6mms. All this of course was in the realm of handloading.
Today we are in a different place. I'm surprised no one has invoked Brian Litz in this discussion. He wrote a thoughtful article on the whole 30 vs 7mm discussion. Here's a summary;
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2011/07/30-caliber-vs-7mm-for-long-range-litz-offers-analysis/
