You get what you pay for.
L
You’re right, I think this is why my M-14 is over 7k now heh.
They say it’s a love hate relationship, but now it’s more love than anything, just a lot of hate getting there.
Not necessarily. You used to be able to get a top notch AR, guaranteed, by just buying "A, B, or C" (ArmaLite, Bushmaster, or Colt). But back during the last panic, Bushmaster was turning out ARs with barrel nuts torqued to less than 10 lb-ft (one of the major ammo distributors discovered it, during an endurance test using steel cased ammo). And as someone else has noted here, you can often build a quality AR on a budget, if you take your time & shop around for parts...
I’ve had nothing but good luck with PSA. Never bought a whole rifle just bunches of parts that I put together and never-ever a problem.
As far as “You get what you pay for” I generally agree but an exception is with Toolcraft for BCGs. https://www.spicetac.com/Toolcraft-556-NATO-Black-Nitride-BCG/
Great quality AND dirt cheap lately. I use them on most of my AR builds, for ones I haven’t built yet and for spares.