It seems moot posting as the OP has not commemted since the first few posts of 30.
A home defense plinker leaves you with a basic gun if the budget is really $1500 all in for a hd setup.
[As a side note: If its for hd he is going to need to actually practice with it way beyond range plinking.]
He will need at least a good set of BUIS and a light as a minimum for hd. He will likely want a red dot and for a hd gun it needs to be quailty i.e. aimpoint trijicon leupy etc. After shooting higher end bolt guns he will likely want a upgraded trigger.
That turns this "best high end AR" budget into a very basic core gun and will still finish up being over 2k+ by the time its the way he wants and ready for real hd use. He should also spend about that again on a pratice ammo and a carbine class or two as its for hd unless he already has that training.
Not trying to be a buz killer as I am an AR aficionado have in the past been in the buisness of developing and building them professionally but that is the reality of the situation.
Here is what I would suggest after 30 yrs of AR,m4/16 and variants
For $1500 he should be able to get the colt 6920-EPR, 10 magpul mags, and VCAS sling. Might be able to squeeze in a steamlight protac hl-x rifle mount light that is awesome and has bother end cap and pressue switch + mount 1000 lumen. That would give you a rock solid baisc hd fun that would do great on the range and grat resale value down the road.
If he wants actual high not premium or custom quality where someone has actually taken the time to fit the parts and use at least the milspecd grade of parts plus a good barrel hand guard etc $1500 will get you a completed upper minus optics.
SO IMHO as a first AR and one for HD, pick up a colt 6920-EPR it will give him a nice milspec quailty Colt with a rail hg, buis, a magpul stock. Add the streamlight and sling and you have a solid basic hd gun out of the box and colts hold their value best of any of the big brands. Then down the road add a reddot and then a trigger.
Before he starts shooting it have him oil the bcg and sit in the living room, watch a show, and hand cycle the gun 500-1000x. Clean it up give it a bit of oil. Pick up a case of m193 5.56 milspec ammo. Load up those magpul mags and go to the range. Make sure its 100% say 500 rd and call it a day. Now you know fairly certain you have a relaible gun for hd. The buis are now zero'd
Every 4000-5000 rds change the buffer spring and check the gas rings by doing the bcg stand test.
For oil SLIP 2000 EWL or on the cheap mobile one 5w40 diesel syn oil
Grease md labs xf-7 or on the cheap mobile one synthetic grease.
Cleaning SOP but then a light coat of grease on bolt carrier and the tail of the bolt behind the lugs to tail. The arm of the charging handle.
