Whelp, i know affordable is subjective.
Being a person who lives on a lower middle class blue collar budget
i appreciate a good buy. Fit and finish will be impeccable, but, I'll tell you right now, i'm not going to spend hours polishing it. My goal is to produce a durable, Colorado handmade tool. A tool good enough to be the last field, bush, survival, deployment knife you'll ever need, and sell the base model for under a $150.
I too prefer Micarta,...but Micarta costs more so might be optional. In my mind, Micarta must be properly fit, properly shaped, and then properly textured to be worth while.