I find the scopes marginally better for long-range sniping, but I get your point. Out of sheer laziness I’ve started ignoring the sniper rifle and using the AR almost all the time as well.
And I do have to chuckle at the side quests, which are often more entertaining than the main ones. The set of missions to get a particularly fowl amigo are a hoot, and the Legends in the eastern province are such spot-on caricatures of Fidel, Che, and every other 1960s era Latin American revolutionary that you can’t help but be amused. Especially hilarious I think is the poet with a thousand children…