Interesting...
Nor do you EVER see the AK pattern used as the foundation of a competition precision rifle.
Never been to a 3 Gun match, I take it?
Hint: Lots of AK variants are showing up there, competing directly against their AR stablemates. We are blessed here at THR to have one of the moderators who does that on a regular basis, and does quite well, I might add.
As for accuracy of the cartridge, the popular PPC family of benchrest cartridges was derived from the "lowly" 7.62x39 round. Ask anybody who fires the 7.62x39 in other platforms, and you'll find that it has excellent accuracy. Mr. Krochus has plenty of target pictures here on THR demonstrating that.
Now, how many MOA do you need, really?
I have a Bulgarian SLR-95 that's a 2MOA gun. It won't shoot the testicles off of a gnat at 400 yards, but I wonder if anybody here has viewed Uncle Sam's acceptance standards for the issued M16 rifles and SS109 ammo lately?
I've got a freezer full of venison, and not once did the deer tell me, "You bastard! You shot me with a sidefolder SAR-1! You can't do that!"
That SAR-1 is a 2.5-3.0 MOA rifle, with my 125gr soft point handloads. Not much different than the vaunted .30-30 levergun, either in ballistics or accuracy. Some Fudds would argue the latter is more suitable for the whitetail woods, but I've got proof to the contrary.
Granted, I've got 1000 yard rifles, I've got 100 yard rifles, and I've got all sorts of rifles that work fine for ranges in between. Bottom line? At typical combat ranges, the AK works exactly as it was intended. Let's not lose sight of that.
And just to rub it in to Krochus, I hated my M16s during my 20+ year military career. I experienced several jams in my yearly qualifications, and my own Colt Competition HBAR absolutely chokes after about 200 rounds fired. It will function again only after a complete teardown and cleaning. It may be anecdotal, but I have little confidence in it as anything other than a range toy. That's why my bedside gun is the sidefolder SAR-1. It may not be a benchrest bughole rifle, but it'll go "bang" when I pull the trigger.