You are very correct. The problem is, the flip side of the snobs who say "Your rifle is garbage, get a DD/BCM/Colt/etc. for any and every purpose" is the side where people say "My Blackthorne worked fine when I fired 200 rounds over the last couple months, it's as good as the BCM." Both sides are incorrect.
There's a continual capability/price scale, where the buyer needs to consider the use of the rifle, how much one is already considering spending, and what might be had at slightly more or less. Sometimes the law of diminishing returns bites down hard (example: a great deal on a S&W M&P for $600ish, a Colt and BCM runs over $1K), sometimes not much more gets a LOT more (someone is staring at a DPMS priced at $800 on the same table with a $900 S&W M&P).
I definitely agree. I've said many, many times, that if there were no sales, and we were paying normal retail prices, and we were comparing AR's, and I simply had to have one; then for the price, a BCM or Colt would probably be the better deal. But some companies do have sales. S&W has quite a few of them that get passed down to the retailers. The $1069 M&P15-OR I got at christmas was normally $949 at Sportsman's Warehouse. But they had a 3 day Christmas sale with $200 off. Plus; there was a $100 S&W rebate. But I've also read of others getting M&P's, RR's, Spike's, and a few others on some really good sales. I just don't see Colt, BCM, DD, LMT, and such having any decent sales. BCM is almost always $1000-$1300 for their complete rifles. DD, Stag, and others are in the $600-$800 "Or More" just for their uppers. Even the cheapest LMT runs about $500 for just the upper. And finding any of these on sale is usually impossible. They are quite "Proud" of their products, and they know there are people out there that will always pay their prices because of their name.
Not that they aren't good products. They are. And like I said; head to head with normal prices, the BCM, Colt, LMT, etc... will win my money every time. But when the others have sales; then the Colt, BCM, LMT, DD, etc... in my opinion isn't worth the extra $300-$600. But the final decision has to be from the individual. For some; the name and 100% mil-spec "Minus full auto" is very important to them. Mil-Spec means something to them. And that's great if they want to buy those AR's. But I can shoot my 5000+ rounds a year through my M&P15 and be confident in it's abilities. And while we're at it; that's why I shot Bear, MFS, Barnaul, Tula, and Wolf. On my average amount of shooting; 5000 rounds a year, my M&P15 will shoot anything I feed it, and I will save approximately $1000 in a year shooting this much ammo. I can buy a LOT more ammo; $50 replacement bolt; $120 replacement BCG; hell, I could buy an entirely NEW M&P15OR and still back $300. So it all depends on a person's use of the gun.
For me; I'm not into competition and marksmanship shooting. I have no need to go to carbine type classes. 95% of all of my shots will be at 100-125 yards. I don't rapid fire to point of getting the gas tube red-hot. 95% of the ammo I shoot is .223 and NOT 5.56mm. So all that means that "FOR ME", I didn't need to spend extra on a 1:7 twist barrel. No need for an M16 BCG, the AR15 BCG is fine. I don't worry about a carbine length gas system with a mid-length gas port. (Over-gassed). All of those things provide no benefit to me at all. So; it was nice to get a quality AR, without having to pay extra for a bunch of features that I had no need or use for. But there's obviously a lot of people out there that believe they need those things. And I'm sure many of them do. And that's why it's good that they can buy them. For me; I'm ok. My Frankenstein is 20 years old. It's made from every conceivable used part you could find out a gun show. It's got over 20,000 rounds through it. My M&P15 is 3 months old and now has 1500 rounds through it. (500 just last weekend). And I have every bit of confidence in both of them "For my needs". Home defense, punching paper, the occasional prairie dog or coyote. For me, that's good enough.
