Free: Contests & Raffles.
Building one on your own using quality components could cost you less.
I would say no, I believe the .223/5.56 round to be sub par for threat suppression and being as you can't hunt big game in this state with it, it would imo fail to meet all around standards. I would be willing to budge more if it were a 6.8 or 7.62/.308 that's just my take. Its a fine caliber for small game and predators reaching out to where a .22 or can't.
The part that classifies it as a carbine is the barrel length, which is standard on most factory ARs. 1:9 twist is also fairly standard. You can always swap to a longer barrel with a different twist ratio. For an all purpose AR this would seem to fit the bill.