As has been stated by Doc Roberts and many others, piston ARs are only really "necessary" if you're shooting a full-auto suppressed SBR. And even for these guns, the piston is there to impart that last percentage of reliability under very harsh conditions and firing schedules. Most AR owners will not visit this part of the AR performance envelope, let alone live there.
And in terms of cleaning, it is not necessary to get a DI gun to "white glove" condition. Wiping down the BCG and running a couple of patches down the bore are pretty much all you need to do. The bigger issue is making sure you use plenty of lube, which is not rocket science.
My only piston gun is an LWRCi PSD in 6.8. It has an 8" barrel and almost no barrel past the gas block, so the piston does help to impart reliability across a wider range of ammo. Other than that, even my other SBRs with 11.5" and 12.5" barrels are DI.

