Erich,
I agree with you. The crack in my R-9’s slide was not very big and probably would not have caused a major problem with the pistol, at least not for a long time. But it is still not someting you want to see on your $1,000 pistol. Also Karl R told me that he has put (at least one) of the cracked slides on his “torture” frame and fired more rounds with it (I don’t know how many, but I get the impression it was quite a few) and the crack didn’t get any worse, or cause any failures.
Erich let us know how your pup performs when you get it back with the new slide. I have 20 more Speer 115 grain GDHP rounds through mine and it is still doing well.
Ed