Is the AR-15 a good rifle for hunting game or is it better suited for target practice? Or is it more of a status gun like some cars are status symbols (like a fancy convertible that never gets taken out of the garage if there is even a hint of showers)?
One of the benefits of the AR is that, being modular you can optimize it for whatever purpose you want. It has a very light recoil compared to other rifles. Remington has a line of AR based rifles optimized for hunting- mostly varmint/small game.
So depends what you want- a rifle good for self defense that can be used by multiple people- adjustable length stock, single stage trigger, red-dot sights or laser (your preference), sling, 16" barrel, mount a flashlight to dazzle/blind and identify an intruder (hopefully meaning you don’t have to shoot, and if you do you know exactly who/what you’re shooting).
A long range target/competition rifle. Fixed stock for some competitions, stock adjustable for LOP and cheek height/weld, bipod, a set of iron sights designed for long range competitions or a scope, free float handguard, dual stage adjustable trigger with a very light second stage pull, 18 to 20’ barrel with twist rate for heavier (relatively) bullets.
3 gun competition, similar to HD, but with both red dot and off-set iron sights and a trigger optimized for 3 gun (short reset single stage). Not into this but some folks get very particular about the type of buffer/BCG to optimize rate of fire vs recoil, tunable flash hider permitting countering barrel rise.
Plinking- iron sights, adjustable or fixed stock, single stage trigger, hand- guard providing good thermal protection if you go through a lot of ammo quickly.
Hunting - depends what you’re hunting but a combination of features above.
ETA: Sorry, forgot to mention-- and you can use different calibers by changing uppers which are more suited to different purpose. Some are intended for greater accuracy for competition shooting but based on .223/5.56 (White Oak Armament/Compass Lake Engineering/.223 Wylde), others are completely different dimensions (6.5 Grendel/300 Blackout), .300 can be had in both supersonic and subsonic versions. The subsonic works well when combined with a suppressor to be much easier on the ears.