I wish more people would hate on them. The prices need to come down, at least until I have all the ones I want.
The mag disconnects are easily removed, you can literally pierce the plastic and rip them out with a steel pick, no disassembly required.
Ouch, brutal!
Driving the rear sight off is (usually) not an ordeal. I like to remove safety assembly from
slide (worthwhile anyway, to inspect & clean out firing pin, spring and bore) but it can be
done with safety in place, with care.
Use padded jaws, and softwood spacer block under slide. Drift from port-to-starboard, after
removing set screw, with a brass punch. Start with light hammer and controlled taps. If
no movement, it's better to use a heavier hammer with controlled taps, than trying to swing
a lighter hammer, harder--all about control, and keeping punch against sight base.
As sight begins drifting, it will reveal the springs for mag disconnect (first) and firing pin
safety plunger (next). On some models, an oval plate covers both springs; on others,
springs are ready to fly out, as soon as sight movement exposes them. They will
disappear if you let them.
To disable the mag disconnect feature, simply remove the spring, and leave the
white or black plunger in the slide (after cleaning out the crud). It may reduce
future accumulation of schmoo, and doesn't affect mag-less function, without
the spring.
IMO, drifting the rear sights off 3rd Gens is a worthwhile practice, just to clean
out the FP safety and mag disconnect bores/springs/plungers, even if you want
to keep the mag disconnect in place. You may be surprised at how much nasty
crud has accumulated in there!