Cheap bipods are an issue, dont' be fooled, the Harris is normally out of square and will hinder your shooting whether you want to believe it or not. Open a Harris and check its dimensions, it's off, I guarantee it. The bipod matters.
We have proven this in class time and time again, just recently, in fact, I posted about it. We had a shooter with a Harris on a hunting rifle, he was doing everything we taught 100% correctly and still, he just could not get the groups below 1.25" in size. We simply switched his bipod to an Elite Iron and Bang, his groups' size dropped in 1/2 --- fucking 1/2 just by switching the bipod.
Yes, you can get away with just about anything, that is the dirty little secret in Precision Rifle shooting, shitty gear will get you by, especially if you don't know any better but quality gear pays for itself in the long run. In fact, I was at MHSA yesterday and we were just talking about this as certain customers will buy the same inexpensive stuff over and over and never learn the lesson. The stuff will break, it will not work as advertised but they keep coming back and to the same place because of cost.
You get what you pay for, The Harris is the lowest common denominator out there and has not changed in how many years. Sure you can shoot competition with a Harris because there is barely any real prone shots and the targets can absorb the error, but that doesn't make it right.
The TBAC is designed because the current Army Spec does not allow for a Harris style, not even an original Atlas, (See CAL) the military has looked at everything and decided they needed a change. The new specs changed everything because guys realized we have a $10k sniper rifle with a shitty $85 bipod so let's remedy this.
Bipods MATTER, I don't care you can get away with anything, hell I saw a guy show up to an F Class Match in Raton with a Pipe Wrench for a Bipod, he shot one day until he embarrassed himself beyond belief and left. Go shoot an F Class F/TR match with a Harris and you'll quickly realize why they use the bipods they do.
Bipods are physics if you want to argue physics have at it, but you are wrong the design matters. The legs, the apex, the construction matters.