Congratulations for your amazingly non-insightful opinionI
But I wonder why you didn't rant about the Remington 721/722, which evolved only slightly into the 700. They were almost as reviled by some (but not all) rifle guys back then as the Ruger American is today.
The big problem with the pre-'64 (and I have owned a bunch, including more than one right now) is that it generally wasn't as accurate out-of-the-box as the 721/722/700--and cost a lot more. And Ruger Americans generally shoot better than 721/722/700s.
But whatever. It's always interesting to read opinions from shooters who've only used one brand/era of rifle for decades. And apparently not many others before then either.
