Like others have said pretty much. Not all cheap AR's suck but it is a crap shoot. I picked up a FedArm's AR for 410$ before covid. Stock to be honest it was pretty good and was getting good grouping. Over the last year or two I have put another 800 into it for trigger, longer barrel and a few other quality of life items. But overall the BCG, upper, lower and buffer are still stock and runs just fine. I will soon be testing it north of 500yds and expect no issues. I have never bought an out right 1000$ AR, I have shot plenty of them and I do feel stock 400 to 1000+ they are very different. Now compare that with one you add too and it could match up just fine. I opted for cheap AR buy in and bought the parts I wanted. Did I save any $$ not at all but it wasn't such a up front shock to the old lady.