I just purchased my first set of Lee Carbide dies for my recently acquired Ruger .45 LC. I'm not sure I like what I see. Please view the pic below and tell me if this is the way they all are inside the sizer die. I also don't think I like the O-rings on the locknuts either. I like something I can tighten with a wrench. Maybe this is why they're cheaper than other brands.

Mine in 45 Colt are about 20 years old and the inside finishing looks about the same.

The brass isn't touching anything other than the carbide insert ring, so it doesn't really matter.

No problemo.

I've used RCBS, Lyman and Lee - l only buy Lee now. I like the rubber O-ring better than the set screw.

He's telling you right. The carbide ring is the only thing that matters in the sizing die. As for Lee, I like their pistol dies better than a lot of other brands. This is mainly due to the carbide factory crimp die. Nothing better for crimping in my opinion.

The original Lee presses were turret presses and the rubber o-ring on the dies work great for setting the dies in the turret and then swapping turrets. On a single stage press the o-rings can be a headache. I only remember one time when they were a problem. I was loading .223 on a single stage press and somehow the sizing die adjustment got off because of the lock ring somehow moving. The rounds were not sized enough to fit the chamber properly. Now I load on a turret press and do not remove the dies. I have more money invested in turrets than the press cost.

As stated above, only the carbide ring touches the case, so no problem. Almost all my handgun dies are Lee.

Lee pistol and fc dies are severely underrated. They never jam my progressive where my rcbs dies do. The rcbs holds spent primers where the lee never does.

I believe that they offer better lock rings..

I use a lot of LEE dies, but I replace the lock rings with narrower rings because there's not a lot of room on a Dillon 550B die plate, and RCBS lock rings work better in that space. For a time, LEE had the best 9mm dies on the market, everyone else's dies oversized the cases and made them look like a coke bottle, but LEE's just did the job without overworking the cases, AND they still fed perfectly well. I had been using RCBS carbide 9mm dies, and after trying that sizer out, I replaced several sizers from RCBS with the LEE stuff. Case life was enhanced, and still no malfunctions.
I used their 9mm taper crimp die on .38 Super cases without a hiccup, too, though it wasn't screwed down as far as it would have been for a 9mm case. The LEE prices were good enough, that I could buy both .44 Mag dies AND .44 Special dies at what one set of RCBS carbide dies cost back then. No more adjusting dies from Spl. to Mag. I did the same with .38 Spl and .357. No issues.