Bottom line, both big and small bullets can leave a lack of blood. That doesn’t really indicate anything for or against overall lethality. More blood is not bad, but a dead deer 20 yards away with a liquefied heart is not a bad thing either.
I think this about sums it up in a reasonable way. I've certainly seen no blood trails from 30 caliber bullets (still recovered the animals).
To me, the bottom line is probably that, yes, you're more
likely to get a blood trail from a larger diameter, deeper penetrating bullet, but blood trail and killing are two different things.
So far, from my limited experience, if I'm shooting deer at 100 yards or so, a 300 Blackout with Barnes 110 Tac-X or 125 BT is more likely to provide a better blood trail than a 223 with say, a 77 TMK, but also from my limited experience, I doubt either "kills better" than the TMK.
If you're shooting through ribs/lungs and want a blood trail in as many cases as possible, there are probably better choices than a 223, even though those choices might not kill as quickly as the 223 and a heavy match bullet.
To add: In the spirt of this thread title, over the last year on 15 or so big game animals, from deer to moose and grizzly, I've not seen anything close to what would be called a "223, 6mm, 6.5mm failure on big game", in fact, if anything, it would be the polar opposite.