I would respectfully disagree that there is cheap ammo, just like there are cheap guns. This does not mean that cheap ammo does not work, or has no uses, only that it is assembled cheaper, with lower grade components.
A steel jacket with copper wash is cheaper to manufacture than a copper jacket. A steel case is cheaper to manufacture than a brass case. Both of these use cheaper materials to get cheaper ammo. But they do work.
Some "economy" brass cased ammo also uses steel jacket copper washed projectiles, as does some milsurp brass cased ammo. It's how they sell it cheaper. I haven't checked them all, I do know that USA brand by winchester in 7.62mm (308) has steel jacketed bullets that are copper washed.
I have yet to see any Russian 223 with steel cored projectiles, although quite a bit of steel cored 7.62x39 and 7.62x54r came in. Those were surplus, while the 223 was made to sell here.
As for reloading steel cases, it's been maybe 3 yrs now since I was loading them, and Russia has changed some things. At the time, some were Berdan, and some were boxer. The boxer was just a bit off (metric), but us primers did push right in with just a tad more pressure. Cases were lubed the same as brass. The most loadings I got from a single case was 4 before the neck split. Since steel does not like to be worked as much as brass will take, a lot has to do with the guns chamber. If fired in a large chamber, it will split sooner than if fired in a tight chamber. The rifle I had when I began loading steel had a tight, almost match chamber, and if I fired the rounds the first time, I could get 4 loadings. Pickups varied, some even splitting the first time. I don't think I loaded the lacquered cases, only polymer ed. The polymer did wear, and rusting became easier. As for getting the cases down to size, they fit in that tight chamber just fine. Press was Dillon 550b, with Dillon dies. Lube was Dillon. I loaded them to full nato velocity, with 62 gr fmjs. At 3 gun matches, I regularly got comments from the timer guy about how I seemed to have hotter wolf ammo than they could remember. I used these for days when I didn't want to chase brass, rainy days, etc. I did not have any high pressure signs, I did work up to the load I ended up with, and it was a load right out of a manual. Now, it may be that most steel cases are Berdan. I have not loaded any of the zinc cases. I did try wolf 45 cases, but could not get a tight fit of the bullet. Either the cases are thinner than brass, or maybe my dies were a little large.
As for lacquer sticking in chambers, I haven't found any real examples. I did try it myself with the rifle I mentioned I didn't clean for a year. I ran 5 30 Rd mags through the rifle at 1 Rd per second or faster, simply dropping the empty mag and inserting a full one. I then chambered a new round and let it sit for maybe 5 minutes. All rounds used were lacquered. When extracted 5 minutes later, it came right out, and inspection of the case, which was too hot to hold, could only be briefly touched, was not sticky nor had other than normal feeding marks. I had duracoat ed the rifle, and burned the duracoat brown on the barrel.