Players sometimes apologize for wanting a parlor-sized guitar, as though it’s a smaller version of a “real” guitar rather than its own thing. It isn’t a compromise — it’s suited to a specific kind of playing that a dreadnought is actually worse at.
A smaller body responds faster and more intimately to a light touch, which is exactly what solo fingerstyle playing in a quiet room rewards. A dreadnought’s bigger air cavity is built to project across a room or a stage; that same design works against you if what you actually want is a guitar that responds to nuance at conversational volume.
No. 44 went to a player who plays almost exclusively at home, in the evening, for an audience of nobody in particular — exactly the use case a parlor body was built for a century ago and still is today.