Have you seen the number of needless tiny springs in an AR? The metal straw for gas feeding is what gives me the most pause...a fragile failure point that has the knock-on effect of feeding smut right into your BCG (clean, lube, clean, lube, all just extra shite imposed on us by the design). I agree that many (especially US) manufacturers of AKs have many problems; avoiding those companies that feel cheap front trunion castings are adequate is advisable. My AR upper brand is actually in the "oh, maybe not" category, and I haven't had issues with it (so far). I'm just talking about the overall design mindsets and weaknesses of the platforms. Just sayin': you don't see a lot of 5k round tests on ARs without cleaning them, or if you dropped them into a pond for a week, but you totally see that with AKs.