I would point out that lumping the entire "gun community" into the same group as the UTube yammerheads isn't particularly fair, or accurate.
While there are a large number of people who own AR pistols and I guess quite a few of them have braces, they are a small percentage of the gun community, and the morons who thumbed their noses at the ATF with their videos are a much, much smaller percentage of AR pistol owners.
I went through a version of this a couple decades ago, with an actual "stocked pistol". It was a Broomhandle Mauser, made to take and be used with the wooden stock/holster.
For many, many years the ATF position was fixed, if you had a stocked pistol (or the pistol and the stock together where they could be assembled) it was an NFA item. SO, I had the pistol, and no stock.
Then they changed the ruling and allowed "curio & relic" class to have a stock without being an NFA item. Since my pistol was now in that class, I got a reproduction stock/holster. I assume it was a reproduction, there were no markings on it, and while it obviously wasn't new, there was no way to determine it was of the 1920s vintage that my pistol was.
And, THAT is the reason I had to get rid of the stock about a decade later when the ATF changed their rules AGAIN, and decided that ONLY original curio & relic shoulder stocks were exempt from the NFA requirments, and a reproduction stock (even though physically identical to the original) made the combination an NFA item.
SO, I sold the stock, and a few years after, sold the pistol as well. Point here is that the ATF changed their rules, back and forth, and that left more than just a sour taste in my mouth about them. SO, I can sympathize with the AR pistols owners being screwed with over what is a brace, and what is a stock.
I think the ATF would have gone on the way they had been for years, essentially ignoring the "brace" issue, even with pressure from the upper administration, had it not been for the adult "children" using their videos to taunt the ATF for the entire world to see. (yes the entire world who could log into UTube)
There are very few things bureaucrats and politicians hate worse than losing their authority & control is that being shown in public.
just my personal opinion, and worth what you paid for it, or possibly less.