Sounds to me like you have read and listened to many who are not fully in touch with 22 lr . Ricochet ? energy via velocity or bullet make up are the only vailid factor . An airgun with a 40 grain slug will behave no different than a 22 lr with a 40 grain bullet in lead - IF fired at the same velocity !
I have had my current CZ varmint 452 with a shortened barrel around twenty years i paid £150 for it second hand! Its put eight bullet through the exact same hole at 100 yards ( should have been ten but i honestly thought something had gone wrong to shot two into the sand with a spotter ) . Repairs ? switched the extractor claws around to account for the wear and it worked fine again! Thats it ! no leaks , no faulty seals , no dive bottle re tests etc etc .
I have had a number of FAC airguns and hundreds perhaps ? of sub 12 ft lb . I actually like the things ! However to replace the RF ? No ! Indeed i am about to put another on this renewal that i am on with a sub 20 ftlb .22 cal for shooting ferals etc in the bigger barns and squirrels from trees to mitigate the lack of confirmed backdrops using std weight air pellets fired upwards and any such things. The real value of air power ( forgetting the dart gun ) is its lack of power imo ! But CCI quiets do pretty good though the bullet is a tad heavy for horizontal shots trajectory curve considered, something that means little shooting steeper inclined angles