Long story short, my ordered-in-march Ruger from the U.S. seems to be unavailable until further notice.
I do guess that I have to go with another brand, a local one. Today went to the range and some of the brand's employers set up a demo of their guns. Sadly, no classic 16" black rifle in .223R but their custom models, with humongous optics on top of that, that only pleased illiterate fudds into awe.