I have both Staccato and 4.25 Prodigy (in addition to some Limcats) and have to say the Prodigy is IMO a better buy at being $1k less. Out of the box, it was very accurate and reliable (save for the mags - I would swap out the mags. I had trouble with 1 mag but the other was fine, but it's run like a champ with my other mags (mix of MBX and STI))
I also bought my Prodigy as a project gun (same as you're thinking OP) - after about 1k rounds to make sure it functions, with the $1k savings I replaced the internal parts, swapped out to MPA grip, and had Monsoon Tactical do a Genghis comp and black MC finish on it, and it is sweettttt.
With the work done, it does comes about same price as stock Staccato but it's been upgraded to how I wanted it.