I'm going to start saving all of your avatars man - that one's awesome.
I couldn't justify the cost of a gas-piston system to myself (nor the weight). I haven't have any reliability issues with my setup and it was done right (save the CMT BCG that I hope to upgrade soon enough).
I'll say this - I did have 1 malfunction and 1 weak ejection (both consecutively right after like 500rds of .22lr through my CMMG kit - specifically as a torture test). That is an example of the dirtiest my gas tube/chamber/BCG will ever get and with one bolt-cycle and a single weak ejection, it was back to fully operational.
I cleaned it afterward and it was nasty - but it never even skipped a beat after that single malfunction (btw, the directions on the .22 kit say to run a .223 round through it every 200 rds to keep from dirtying up the gas tube, etc...).
If that's the reliability difference in a piston setup and gas impingement, then I'll save the money/weight.
