Maybe you should accept the fact it's just a frigging varmint rifle and then butt out since you are obviously missing the point that varmint rifles were tried and rejected a 125 years ago with the failure of the Lee Navy.
And all your energy numbers are theoretical bullshit if the bullet is to narrow to dump it's energy into the target, then there's the fact it's basicly shit for barrier penetration. Hey, newsflash for Frank, they quit that Napoleonic standing in the open shit 160years ago.
This hits the nail on the head. The .223 / 5.56 MM, regardless of how you dress it up, or how many rounds you stuff into the magazine,
is still nothing more than a varmint cartridge..... And always has been. You tell this to AR platform fanatics, and they right away get insulted, and want to argue. "It's better to wound in battle than to kill, and the 5.56 creates terrible wounds"..... and all of that bullshit.
It doesn't change the fact it's still a varmint cartridge. A deer has a cardiovascular system very similar to a man. And is considered by many to be about as difficult to kill. The .223 round is
ILLEGAL to hunt deer with in several states because it lacks sufficient energy to make clean kills. I've never been able to figure out the logic, that if it's not enough gun for deer, how can it be for war?
I forget what the amount of 5.56 MM rounds to kill ratio was in Vietnam, but it was off the chart. So soldiers were able to carry more ammunition to spray into the jungle. This was an "advantage" how? Big magazines, (20-30 as opposed to 8 in the Garand in WW II), and a bunch of spray and pray full auto fire accomplished exactly what? Marksmanship took a back seat to, "volume of fire". I've never been able to wrap my head around that type of thinking. Especially with the lack of results it has obtained.
Then, to frost the cake and light the candles, someone got the clever idea to neck up this varmint round to take .30 caliber bullets. (.300 Blackout). The standard AK round is better, cheaper, and more plentiful. So what's the big advantage to the .300 Blackout, other than the fact that all of these same guys who love to argue how wonderful the .223 is, are now all jumping on the .300 Blackout bandwagon? It doesn't make sense to me. If you want a good .30 caliber round, you have had the .308 for decades. Everything else seems like little more than a commercial and financial distraction.
I have AR's in both .223 and .308. In battle I don't even have to think about which one I would want to carry. It's a no brainer. Especially with good optics.