Guil,
Your original point about being able to buy a SIMILAR version of anything Colt sells is largely, but not entirely, true, but my original counter is that SIMILAR isn't necessarily the same quality.
Colt doesn't "make more", because they don't have the resources (money) to do so. Making more requires spending more, and money is loosening up over the past 10 years, but still tight.
Nothing whatever to do with the "Union won't let them."
Slam,
I do not associate tight fit with quality.
You & I have different criteria, and mine are not based on holes in paper. A "loose" pistol can & does shoot quite well without having a super-tight frame/slide fit.
It also will tend to be more forgiving of built up gunk internally.
I say that as a current owner of 6 "loose" Colts & a former owner of a Baer TRS.
The Baer was very nicely built, but it didn't shoot THAT much better for me than a well-set-up Colt, and manipulating it by hand was something of a chore.
Your Wilson accuracy improvement was just as likely due to a better barrel, better barrel fit, tighter bushing, or a combination.
I'd buy your attribution of increased accuracy to the frame/slide tightening, IF that was the only thing they did to it. Otherwise, no.
I'm not saying Colt is the only place to go for a 1911 or an AR, and this is not a brand war. It's been an attempt to address the original poster's question.
I am saying just because an AR looks like one of Colt's models, a 1911 looks like a 1911, or a single-action clone looks like a Peacemaker, that doesn't mean quality is equal.
On the ARs, Colt takes the same parts out of the same bins (where applicable) for both their military M16s and their civilian AR-15s.
That means a known mil-spec quality level, something you can't always get with another make.
I base my definition of quality on the parts & performance, not on the additional features a competitor may include on a model.
I'd much prefer a mil-spec basic Colt to a tricked-out non-mil-spec version by another maker.
Give me a sound core that's dependable over the long run, and I can tweak later on with sights, a different grip, handguard, whatever.
I fully realize there's a bunch of RR ARs out there in happy shooters' hands, and I'm not advocating buying a Colt over an RR. I'm just saying the RR product is not "better" than a Colt AR, which has been a known standard for decades. You'll find far more Colts in cop cars than RRs (or other makes), not to mention standards demanded by militaries here & abroad. There's a reason for that.
By all means, buy whatever you want.
Denis