Typical thrifty bill approach: I find a donor bike with a suitable group, buy it and do the swap. So the decision would be up to what I found. I have never bought a new group, nor pieced together one with individual component buys.

OK, I have been trying to piece together a Suntour Ole group, been at it for a couple of years, have about half of it. One Ole donor bike would have been a lot faster (and cheaper).... Ole stuff doesn't go that high, it just doesn't show up much.