>>531759407
That's the thing, the AK74 is better than the late game weapons if upgraded and those weapons — not.
And the fact that you can just buy an end game assault rifle from Nimble on the cheap incentivises you to buy the Groza 5.45, upgrade it and keep using it until Pripyat and beyond.
Same with armor, really bad until you upgrade it, but you don't have enough money to upgrade all your armor, which effectively makes the light Freedom and Duty suits not worth using, ever. The game already has very few armors and that makes it effectively have even fewer.

>>527932756
gtfo