- plastic everywhere where metal was used in the past
That's not necessarily bad. Plastic is pretty good these days, and the parts that Ruger does use plastic on does not seem to suffer for it. YMMV?
- rotary magazine, which without proper TLC will give you a very expensive single shot.
I have not had any problems with any of my magazines after maybe a thousand rounds. I've never given them more than a cursory cleaning.
- all the "trick out bling parts" on the aftermarket leaves you with a 500.00 .22 rifle, which shoots no better than my 140.00 .22 bolt gun.
Just don't buy them if you don't want them. The only aftermarket parts I bought were a GI sling, Tech Sights (for Appleseed), and an extended mag release (cause if you do a hundred mag changes in a day your thumb starts to feel it).
- and last but not least, these are not the 10/22's we bought 10 years ago, especially 15 yrs ago.
Not sure what you mean by this. It's the same design that's been around since forever. Do you think that build quality is down? They seem solid to me when I handle them behind the counter, but I have not shot a recent example.
I like simple and dependable. But that's just me. Too each their own....
I think the 10/22 is just that. But I sure wouldn't mind it if you sent me a different rifle to shoot for a year or so to learn the difference, a Henry if you got one.