For under a grand that looks like a pretty nice rifle with a lot of worthy features.
You're right about the pricing--I've never paid anywhere near retail price for any gun I own. I find the inflated retail prices of guns as idiotic as the inflated retail prices of American-made cars. Only half wits pay retail for guns or U.S. made cars. My 2004 F150 Supercrew listed for $34,000, and I bought it new for $24,000. Yet when magazines like Consumer Reports compare vehicles, they have to judge them by the suggested retail prices. Hence a $34,000 Ford F150 might lose out to a $33,000 Nissan Titan on value. But if the real sale price was considered, the Ford might kick the Nissan's hiney on value.
The same with guns. I saw the SHOT show reports, with the $1,700 S&W AR and the $1,200 Sig 556 and dismissed the AR out of hand.
I still plan to pick up a Sig, but first I'm going to let Sig scam as much money from the early customers as possible. They have a scheme where a dealer can only get 2 556s if they buy 20 Sig handguns, but that won't last. They'll be swamped with so many orders for the 556 that it will be economically unfeasable to try to use them to extort dealers into buying more exoensive handguns that they are not selling. They will realize that they are killing a cash cow. Until Sig starts supplying the 556 in the quantities the market demands, dealers will be marking them up, selling them for over list price. I'll let other people take it in the shorts on that deal and wait until they start shipping quantities of the rifles without the pistol-extortion scheme.