Thats sort of my point, its usually the target shooters who stress "inaccuracy", basing things on their type of shooting. I wouldnt use an AK to shoot HP or one of the military rife matches either, if I was trying to shoot for "score", I wouldnt use a FAL, G3, or a most others either for that matter, as they dont generally make good "target" guns.
Change things up a little, and take that match grade AR and shoot it a little more realistically, and even with the match gun, youre going to see very similar results on a target with no fixed aiming point as you do with the AK's.
Not sure what your definition of "realistic" is. Mine is shooting under field conditions from various improvised positions, on targets from contact distance to as far as 550 yards under the constraints of a shot timer, and in some cases with a time limit. General target size is around 4 MOA, except for close range targets, which would consist of of full-size IPSC targets with hard cover and no-shoots.
I've also encountered some interesting things at matches, including requirements to break clay pigeons with a rifle at distances of 70-200 yards.
If all youre doing is punching paper, I agree, but it still puts both guns in the 300 yard range for most realistic, or other than "target" use. Both guns tend to excel at closer, more realistic distances, and both are effective within that envelope.
There are a couple of reasons I tend not to emphasize terminal ballistics. First of all, I'm not aware of any sources that have good information on terminal ballistics, especially for non-military rounds.
Secondly, the odds that anyone would ever actually have to use a gun in a defensive situation like that are vanishingly rare.
Thirdly, in the instances where these guns have been used on human opponents, the results certainly seem to be acceptable.
One other this in this respect I find interesting is, many of the AR shooters who tell you the AK's stock is to short, have the adjustable "sliders" on their guns and they are often set shorter than the AK's fixed stocks.
I'm tall and lanky, and run rifle stocks that are set up to fit me. The AK stock is far too short for me.
For me, compared to most stock AR's triggers, the stock AK's triggers just seem so much "cleaner", smoother, and lighter. All but one of my factory AR's have the standard, fairly heavy and crunchy triggers. The one AR I have that doesnt have one like that, has a nicely tuned "match/precision" type trigger that comes as an upgrade.
The AK triggers I've tried have ranged from good, to acceptable to downright awful. The one in my Mak 90 was one of the better ones, but even the best ones still couldn't hold a candle to even a cheap after-market two stage NM trigger from Rock River, let alone the triggers that can be bought from places like JP or Geissele.