FWIW, I disagree somewhat from the article. It downplays the value of a good trigger for non-long range rifles, but for me a good trigger is going to be a fast way to get groups tighter. For a mere $120ish, it’s a worthwhile upgrade.

I actually don’t mind clamshells. They feel great in the hand, and I simply mount a light on the FSB. A quality, true freefloat MLOK is a good upgrade, but I don’t see the point in getting something in between like a drop in quadrail for a personal rifle.

For optics, I’m never fully jumped on the LPVO hype train, and now I see some people swinging back away from them. My issue with LPVO was always that people who shoot with them a lot tend to stick a red dot on top of them because the LPVO isn’t actually ideal on 1x. At that point a fixed power with a red dot on top does the exact same thing but usually in a lighter and smaller package. I really like my TA31 with a red dot on it. I do like some LPVOs having variable focus and bigger view windows than something like a TA31, so there is merit for them there. For a close range focused build, the Eotech is unbeatably crisp, but on the other hand I used a cheap Bushnell TRS-25 for about a decade before it started degrading, and in that time I never felt I was missing shots because of the optic.

An ambidextrous safety and a ambi-charging handle are simple swaps that make a rifle more left handed friendly.

Upgraded BCGs are good, but only really matter for shooting enough that the rifle needs the extra reliability through the dirty build up. Something I’d put at the bottom of the list to upgrade.