I mean no offense to anyone's choice of guns, here, so please don't take this as a "my dog's better than your dog" post.
A friend, big into class III, old, big-bore rifles, 1911, Air Force Vietnam Vet, all-around good guy to spend time with, pontificated about several taboo topics one day on a long dive to a distant gun show. He said things to me, privately, which he'd never bring up around other gun guys.
One day, we were half way in on a two-hour trip and he said "y'know the Marlin was always a better gun than the Winchester" (referring to their lever-guns), and he went on; "but the Winchester was cheaper, better-marketed common, like a Chevy, today." He drove a Chevy truck, by the way. His position was that the old Winchesters are thought to be superior because of their numbers still in existence, but it was more that they were more affordable, so everyone had one. He described a number of features related to both, made it clear that he wasn't down on Winchester, but that his hypothesis stood on objective facts and that he loved both.
I've assumed that this was applicable a hypothesis for the Savage, if not more so. I personally do not have the experience to make any such claim, let alone defend it. I've never owned a Savage 99, but anyone I know who HAS, has sworn by it. My brother has one in 300 Savage and dotes on it. I think he is intrigued at how it does everything so well, which so many other guns/cartridges are supposed to do "better."
I've always felt this idea paralleled Stanley hand-planes, which were not necessarily the "best," but were certainly prolific. They were affordable. They did the job if tuned and used correctly and everyone had at least one.
@Rick H , speaking of rebarreling a 99 for the "perfect" deer rifle, an old pal of my dad had some highly coveted version of the 99 in 243, which he acquired in like-new condition. He had my dad send it off to John Pell, in Colorado, to have a 24" 25 Souper barrel installed on it. John used Douglas barrels and machined them to a sleek and graceful straight-taper octagon, from a short round section at the chamber. These barrels shot wonderfully in the bolt-actions we had John do, one of which was a M77 in 25 Souper. That 99 shot fully as well as the bolt-action did. It was one slick rifle, to say the least.