Have to disagree there Jim. Seeing as how all pointy FMJ's will yaw and nearly all will break up or fragment in body tissue that more or less rules out the max penetration idea. I still say military FMJ's were designed to meet the requirements of the 1899 Hague Declaration concerning expanding bullets. All other attributes were just unintended bonuses.
It was around '90 or '91 when the use of BTHP bullets by snipers for combat use got the nod of approval.
Army JAG lawyers made the argument that since nearly all pointy military bullets yaw or break up in body tissue they all cause needless suffering and injury so all violate article 23e of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV of 1907 which out laws arms, projectiles or material that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering and since the BTHP's open tip did not actually expose any of the core as outlawed by the 1899 Hague Convention and that it was part of the manufacturing process designed to provide better aerodynamics and not for expansion it was not in violation of the Hague rulings and thus legal for use in combat.