I'm no expert on these things.
My best friend is. Right down to jury rigging a forge and re-caseing a bale spike in our friends barn. In general,I send him the stuff, his people heat treat it. In the last 30 years I have seen carefully controlled science replace the voodoo.
It shows in the consistancy and quality of heat treated parts.

I suspect, that if we start out with a shotgun that weighs enough to be confortable to shoot, it has enough steel in it to be somewhat forgiving of our secondary manufacturing treatments. Which isn't the same set of determinants as effects fuel economy and highway safety. Or, rifle safety for that matter.
Just a viewpoint.

Out there doing it best I can.