6.5 Grendel on it's own merits

[BluntForceTrauma]

These are gas gun matches that go out to 900 or so yards. Everyone I see adopting a new small frame AR cartridge is going 6ARC. Within this group, Grendel is generally considered inferior to 6ARC.

Yes, when tuning a cartridge for a very specific set of parameters such as long-range matches, the exterior ballistics of the 6mm ARC are superior to the 6.5 Grendel at 900 yards.

I've long argued the Grendel could gain much of that back with a modern hybrid ogive 115gr bullet — but that's another discussion.

With that ammo pretty well gone, 6.8 SPC is arguably better for short range hunting

I'd be interested in hearing you make that "arguably better" argument. What is your reasoning?