Those "apes" are risking a felony conviction for posession of an unregistered SBR. Period. Yeah, it is unlikely they'll end up on ATF's radar, but I'm not one to rely on "keeping a low profile" as my defense against a felony conviction.
In the Kent case, the ATF found the guy with an unregistered AR15 and a spare, short upper, which he claimed he purchased for spare parts. The prosecutor pushed two pins, replaced the long upper with a short one, and got a conviction for an unregistered SBR AR15.
The precedent from the Thompson Center case addressed a similar situation, in that the kit in question could be assembled in a legal configuration or an illegal one. The court ruled that ATF had to assume the lawful method unless they had proof to the contrary.
If your collection of parts leaves you no legal means to assemble one of your lowers, you've got all the elements necessary for ATF to pursue, and get, a felony conviction for an unregistered SBR. All the proof they need is your spare upper sitting on your spare stripped lower.
Then again, some guys post openly on the internet about having a personally-registered NFA weapon stored in the same gun safe that their wife has access to when they're not around. That too is a felony, as ATF considers it an "untaxed transfer." Yet, they do it anyway, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, written in plain English.
It's all a question of how much risk you're willing to tolerate.
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