You're trying to engineer killing a deer or an elk. You're way overthinking it.
No, I’m simply asking a question as to how people evaluate cartridges for a specific purpose or need without using ballistic information. I never mentioned elk or deer or even hunting and they may have nothing to do with a the specific purpose or need in question.
I’ll grant there are non-ballistic issues to be considered when buying a rifle, such as availability at the needed price point, the left/right handedness needed, the desired configuration (bolt/lever/single-shot/whatever) and cartridge/component availability, etc. These issues, however, have no bearing on the capability of a cartridge per se.
A person doesn’t need to shoot anything or have any prior knowledge of a cartridge or cartridges to determine from ballistic tables that a .375 H&H is a better choice for cape buffalo than a .22 Hornet. An extreme case, admittedly, but it makes the point. Maybe the use is home defense, in which case ballistic tables would clearly show the relative danger of over-penetration. Maybe the purpose is target shooting at long range and wind drift is the primary consideration, in which case ballistic tables can be used to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff.
By the way, ballistic tables are not the only way people get ballistic information. That information may come by word of mouth from any number of sources (“Yes, the .30 Whatzit” will kill deer out past 600 yards”). The reliability of such information, of course, may be anything from very good to misleading, questionable or downright wrong.
