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There is a FAL website called The FAL Files (falfiles.com) that has pretty good knowledge on all things FAL.
The early DSA FALs were pretty good when they were having the recievers built by LMT and used mostly surplus parts. Once they decided to actually start making parts in-house quality went way down.
Century are generally to be avoided. Some Century used Imbel recievers but generally are somewhat of project. Absolutely avoid anything else Century unless it's cheap enough for parts.
Armscorps Israeli rifles are pretty good.
The South American rifles (both Argentinian and Brazilian) are actually very good with Springfield -48s being Imbels (Brazilian).
Commonwealth/Inch rifles are rarer, magazines are more expensive, and they are not southpaw friendly due to their safety. They do have wooden forearms which protects the hand from heat better the metal or plastic on most metric rifles.
Building isn't very hard and about the only tool you probably don't have is a receiver wrench while the rest you probably have or can be improvised. Back in the late 90s some Marines put together a group buy on Imbel recievers (500 @ $130.00) and we put most of them together at MALS-14 as they had lathes for the barrel installation.
If you're looking at used research the DSA serial number range/markings to make sure what you're looking at is actually an LMT rifle. Imbel marked receivers (unless a Century assembled rifle) deserve a good look. With the Springfields you may incur the costs associated with them being ban era rifles. Armscorps are Israeli pattern, pre-ban, and good quality.
Obviously overall condition plays into the equation.
As far a ubiquity of the FAL compared to AR-15 there are far more AR-15s in this country than FALs produced world wide. About a year and a half ago I read a financial document that addressed Andersen which stated the Andersen had produced over nine million receivers under various labels from 2015-2017 with 4-6 million more forgings/80% lowers.
I have a G-1 on Imbel mutt that doesn't get much use and I would be willing to trade if you're interested.
S/F, FOG
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