I did a lot of my own testing before I made my choice.
I also helped that one of my best friends has an SKS.
They brought up "knockdown power." They gave that win to the 7.62 over the .556.
I mean, that's pretty much everything for me.
My goal isn't to murder somebody from a long distance. Even if I'm in a life or death situation, my goal isn't to kill anyone -- my goal is to make the attacker stop what he's doing.
ARs have some better ballistic performance at greater distances and with fancier rounds. AKs are man-stoppers at shorter distances, and with cheaper ammo.