To each his own view, & both methods will work, but I'd rather not drill or machine a handguard to get access to an adjustment screw for a gas block.
I'll take buying a correct, & relatively low cost tool, to adjust it &, yes, with that tool, on a mid-gas system on an 18" barrel, you can adjust the screw a full 360* w/o removing or re-positioning the tool...................non-existent problem solved.
In addition, the adjustment screw has 15 well defined detentes so once you set it & then change it, you can easily return to where you had it set previously, if that kind of feature has any value to you.
And I've yet to see anything from SLR that was poorly designed or produced; maybe not to your preference, but that doesn't necessarily mean either poor or bad.
MM
