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I’m curious what you see as design deficiencies.

The big one, considering it is intended as a field weapon, is that it needs constant cleaning to function properly. Field conditions are, in a word, nasty. You're not going to be in a clean-room, but somewhere dry, and hot, and with sand/dirt blowing everywhere; or in the hot, wet jungle with plants (and the attendant sap/pollen/crap) everywhere; or maybe in a swamp with water and decaying bio-mass getting in all the cracks... the whole M-16/M-4 platform is extremely fickle about any dirt/grime anywhere. {I've seen it act funny because of too much CLP and carbon from firing.}

This is all compounded by the difficulty of field-stripping the weapon for cleaning: it has a lot of parts, some that are pretty small and will easily get lost in the above-mentioned environs.

To illustrate allow me to present several rifles, filed-stripped.

This is the M-4, almost-field-stripped (the buffer & buffer spring are still inside the lower reciever):

The M-1:

Rather a lot of small parts, but a larger round & I've not heard of it being described as finicky in-general.

AK-47:

A few small parts, but it has a reputation for always firing (i.e. working in field conditions).

This is the PS-90, field-stripped:

No really small parts, compact, light, and has 50-round magazines.

The Mosin-Nagant:

"What's field-stripping?"

I'm afraid I can't agree. Use a chrome bolt, or some other modern coating and it alleviates the majority of problems with the impingement system. The primary advantage of the impingement system is accuracy. Of the rifles and sub guns you have shown the M16/AR is the most accurate. Do you want a rifle that fires every time you pull the trigger but has limited accuracy, or a rifle that is effective to 400 yards (m4, m16 has a greater effective range, add a better caliber it's effective up to 1000 yards) that requires some basic maintenance. An AK, while dependable, has an effective range of 250 yards. In Afghanistan we can engage the enemy at ranges where their rifles are not effective while ours are...and that is with the anemic 5.56. Converting existing rifles to 6.5G or .264LBC is the most cost effective of upgrading and it produces a rifle that is unmatched in accuracy and range.