It's funny... I've owned three 10/22s. One was the vasic, light-barrel, walnut stock version I kept stock except for a few parts to improve the trigger and I relieved the stock everywhere except where the band goes around. My second one I spend a total of about $600 had all kinds of new parts... pretty much everything Volquartsen offered for less than $100... hammer, trigger, sear, disconnector etc... including their laminated stock and a Green Mountain heavy barrel. Buddy of mine was all kinds of crazy over that one so I sold it for about a $50 loss. I bought a Ruger stainless/laminated heavy barrel model that I took the upgraded parts out of my other one and installed them and sold the stock rifle. Eventually, I traded off the target model for... something. I also had a standard-weight 597 in stainless with the laminated stock. I just couldn't find the right ammo for it but it was 100% reliable from the first shot with everything I tried in it and I loved the stock on it and the general feel of it.
Thing is, and I guess I did go sort of cheap on the barrel... but the customized one was no more accurate than my standard sporter weight model. Maybe .2" more accurate at 50 yards. The factory target model was fine, but I had bought Savage MKII LV heavy barrel/laminated bolt gun that I was pretty happy with so I got rid of all the 10/22s. Then after a couple sessions, I realized the trigger on the Savage was kind of junky and from what I could tell, not much can be done about it - no parts and my trigger guy said he'd messed with them and couldn't do much.
Long story is, with the wealth of aftermarket, unless you have that excellent old 22 rifle you had as a kid or that your father handed down, or unless you're willing to go to at least for the CZ (or Kimber, Cooper, Anschutz) the 10/22 is a really decent platform. Or at least, that's been my experience. I just had to go through three of them and a few other rifles to figure that out.
