This is one of those topics where gun fans will try to take to both sides of the issue. When they are talking to "normies" they talk about how suppressors aren't really that quiet and it's just to protect their hearing at the range. When they are talking amongst themselves they brag about how they were able to get their guns "Hollywood quiet" with subsonic ammunition.
What's most misleading about Hollywood silencers isn't the sound of the gun firing, but the sound of the round striking. In suppressed weapons, the bullet impact is often significantly louder than the weapon firing and should be clearly audible if it's hitting a solid surface.
Only at great cost to penetrative power. The muzzle energy of the oft-cited subsonic .22 is a whopping 120-140 J. And that energy bleeds very fast with distance, since most of the kinetic energy comes from the velocity, and aerodynamic drag is proportional to velocity squared. A real-life Agent 47 may genuinely be better off with a crossbow.
I've fired a .22 semi auto rifle with a sound suppressor and subsonic ammo in the past. It was maybe just a little bit louder than the Welrod in the video in the article. The noisiest part was the bolt cycling. I'm not sure how practical it was for anything more than paper targets or beer cans at near to mid range.
Sure, then ignore then .45 example and ignore the 300 blackout or countless other calibers that perform well subsonic. Cherry pick all you like, it's possible to have a Hollywood quiet firearm. Stating otherwise is disingenuous at best.
I never stated that it is impossible to have a Hollywood quiet firearm, nor did I cherry pick anything. I merely highlighted a tradeoff that calls the efficacy of "Hollywood quiet" firearms into question. For subsonic ammo, quietness is not affected by bullet size, it's affected by the amount of exploded powder. And it just so happens that your muzzle energy is also affected by the same thing. Your subsonic .45 and 7.62x35 will be louder than your subsonic .22 by roughly the same proportion that they are deadlier.
Your first video is showing what's effectively the absolutely quietest suppressed firearm you could possibly ever shoot, which isn't a very representative example.
The second video is good, although if you click through the guy's links they have a video of them shooting the same gun with a db meter next to it, showing that it still makes 87.4 db of noise when firing, which is considered louder than "a loud radio", and is basically at the db level where anything that level or louder is considered harmful. So, not really that quiet in reality. The sound doesn't really get picked up on a microphone and played through your headphones in a very realistic manner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSWyAQe5K7k
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EqAYUb0uYn0
What's most misleading about Hollywood silencers isn't the sound of the gun firing, but the sound of the round striking. In suppressed weapons, the bullet impact is often significantly louder than the weapon firing and should be clearly audible if it's hitting a solid surface.