The "ugly" comments about the RAR are, although not surpising here on the 'fire, even less comprehensible to me than the critique of other modern rifles.
The RAR is no heirloom. It was not built (and is not priced) to be an heirloom, unlike the Ruger #1 and many of the 77 and 77II variants. It is not a rifle to be lovingly oiled and placed in a fine mahogany and glass case, or transported in a case lined with rich Corinthian leather
The RAR is an inexpensive bullet delivery device. Buy, shoot. Buy, shoot. When the barrel goes, buy another rifle. If you get bored, sell it and buy another. You'll lose less than the price of two boxes of premium factory ammo and you'll have had some trigger time behind an accurate bullet delivery device.
If the RAR gets more people fired up about shooting accurate rifles (and the RAR's are that, ugly or otherwise) then I could care less what they look like.
