You can soup up a 20 or dumb down a 12 to do what a 16 does. You can not soup up a 16 to do what a heavy 12 load can do. I think they missed a marketing opportunity in the 16. They could have defined it's roll, the 16, as "the upland game gun", the 12 as the heavy hitter for wild fowl, geese, turkeys and with the odd deer thrown in. The 20 could have been presented as the charming small gauge for small birds that the 28 now holds. Each with a clear roll and each could be very good at that roll.
But perhaps it is too late for that now. With gun sales heavily skewed for the last fifty years the break down is most likely 70% 12, 20% 20, 1% 16,and 3 % each 28 and .410. So the total market is not there for the sale of 16 ammo to replace the 20 because there are not enough guns waiting for ammo. And ammo makers do look at production numbers to anticipate future sales of ammo needs. Hence not many 16 made in the last 50 years, not much anticipated need for large volumes of ammo.
I just wish Winchester would bring back the compression formed 16 hulls. If they did that they could dominate the 16 market, for new ammo sales, and re-loaders could have a good source of easily reloaded hulls that would last a long time. Having a secure supply line of those hulls would bring a lot of old guns out of hiding.
