You are correct, and maybe I can offer some insight on where we may disagree.
First off, KAC and suppressors go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are absolutely the pinnacle of perfection. I run SF on all my KAC, but I definitely don’t dislike the KAC cans.
Here’s where we may see things differently: the KAC were designed from the ground up to be a complete system. The gas ports, the length of the gas system, the buffer weight, everything was designed to work together and be the best there is both suppressed and non. Just read the interweb sites about gas systems, dwell times, etc. Most folks will preach that you can’t run a mid length gas system on a 14.5” gun. The dwell time is too short, it’ll never be reliable, yada yada. Meanwhile, I’m smashing thousands of rounds out of my KAC 14.5” with its mid length, and it’s the SOFTEST gun I shoot. I run it suppressed 100% of the time.
My SR-25 ACC runs like a sewing machine as well. No adjustable GB on either one. Now, here’s the difference: KAC puts thousands of hours into research and R&D to ensure this. There are SOCOM units using these guns to shoot booger eaters that hate us. They have to work.
You grab your typical off the shelf DPMS, PSA, S&W MP10 etc. they are absolutely NOT going to run like a KAC. Suppressed or otherwise. The answer here is simple: throw an adj gas block on it, choke it down to a more manageable level, and rock on.
Here’s the thing: most companies are absolutely not going to do the T&E to ensure absolute reliability under all the variables that the super top tier companies do. Hodge, KAC, LMT come to mind. These guys are in a different league. The prices reflect that though. MOST folks, and for them they aren’t wrong, are NOT going to pay $4200-$4500 for an SR-25 ACC. They can’t justify it when a S&W MP10 is under $2K. For them that works. I don’t fault them. Just know you’re going to need that adj GB to run most of the time.