I have a 642. Over the decades, Ive carried them, and a few other J frames a good bit, but havent carried one in a number of years now.
I kept the 642 to shoot in practice and stay on top of it, and I usually shoot it a couple of times a month. Its also one of my least favorite guns to shoot. A box of 50 at an outing, is about all I can stand anymore.
If you havent yet shot one, Id highly suggest you try and do so before you buy. These are not "beginners" guns, and require a bit more work to get good with them and maintain that.
Unless of course, your plan is to just grab them by the shirt and jam the gun into their belly and pull the trigger. It will do fine for that. Beyond that, they tend to require a bit more from you than most of the other snubbies.
They shoot very well once you get them down, but getting, and staying there can get old fast and be brutal.
I personally would never carry one as a primary unless it was my only choice. These days, it would be a third line gun for me.
You have 5 rounds in the gun. Do you think you might ever need a reload?
Moon clips are great. Fastest revolver reloads going. They also tend to be more fragile than other things too, and require more attention. You just have to figure out how youre going to carry them, and do so in a manner that they arent prone to damage. Bend a clip, just a little bit, and they wont work.
I use Safariland speedloaders with most of my revolvers, and they work well with the J frames too. They are pretty robust, take a lot of abuse, and dont normally let the rounds go, unless you want them to.
Ive had a number of steel framed J frames in the past as well. They arent as hard on you as the Airweights, but they arent really all that pleasant to shoot with what youre likely to carry in them, especially the 357's.
If you can, Id try to find the guns youre interested in and shoot them before you buy. Ive taken a few people shooting with one, who were dead sure that was what they wanted, right up until they shot it.