Doc: I carried an M-14 up mountains, through swamps, underwater on river crossings and I never had one cease working or saw one that couldn't easily hit the 300 meter target with the iron sights. I knew people who thought they were too heavy and too long, and I'd agree that both of those were issues, but my view was that it was a nice weapon. As an added bonus you could--before they substituted those cheap fiberglass stocks--use it for a vertical butt stroke, something that AR variants won't do.
I don't know anything about the condition of the M-14's in current inventory, and can't disagree that it is largely obsolete, but in my experience it was far from a POS. Of course, I thought the M-60 was a pretty decent weapon as well (though admittedly not as good as the MG-42 or M-240). For a true POS my view is you'd have to look at the M-73.