Get a good barrel, bolt, and trigger. The rest just holds the important bits together. You are never going to wear out a upper or lower, and only 1/4% of people will ever wear out a barrel or bolt. Being an AR brand snob is like wear designer cloths, it doesn't make any sense.
You might not have been around in the Hesse/Vulcan/Blackthorn days or you would know some receivers do a better job of holding the important bits together. PWA was another brand that had a lot of issues with pins drilled a little off, enough so that they broke hammers pretty regularly.
I'm not saying names will get you a better gun but sometimes names will give you a better chance.
Designer clothes? That's kind of an odd analogy but I'll take Carhart over the knock offs every time. Guns are not much different.
