Kind of like one of the recent classy ads for a red dot that said something to the effect of (paraphrasing), "I tried it out and decided a red dot on a handgun wasn't for me. Mounted to the slide but never shot."We like to "soup" things up, make them look cool...then sell them. (Bonus Points if you do it without shooting it).
Thanks guys. Glad I asked.Your paying for looks... I build competition AR9's tune them to 140 Power factor for reliability. Having installed a dozen different mfr's, who are primarily machinists and not engineers with years of aerodynamics & proper test facilities... Hence, your mainly paying for looks. The 2nd issue is generating enough gas, then capturing it effectively by the compensator design to equate it a competitive advantage.
For competition, it's more to generate sound so that the timer can record shots accurately... others like them to have noise reduction to take easy on their hearing.