Almost childlike in it's wonder and imagination.

The issue is that energy doesn't kill, or sunlight would at ~ 1300 J/m^2, what kills is the tissue disruption that the energy possessed by the projectile enables.
Once that hole has been made in the vital tissue structure, any "extra" energy would not be needed in the first place.
Give me a pellet that "over penetrates" over one that that mushrooms inswide the animal on the same shot presentation every time, that little bit extra could save my skin on an inadvertently more quartering shot, for example.