How foolish would it be to use stock 6 bolt rods in a budget oriented 2.3 build ? The stock rods would be upgraded to arp hardware. Just considering all options and possibilities. My thoughts are that this would be a terrible idea due to the stress that would be generated on stock rods and with the added cost of machining and reconditioning stock rods to just opt for aftermarket ones.
Can’t help but wonder though

The stock 4g63 rods themselves are not a problem in a 2.3L. 4g64 2.4L utilize the same rods as 4g63 from factory.
The point is if you can machine and recondition the stock rods cheaper than buying a set of aftermarket rods, then yes it could be a good option. The pricing would depend on what piston you would like to use with what type of wrist pins. Full float pins with bushings or press fit pins like OEM pistons. If you would like to have full float pins, obviously it would cost extra for bushing besides the basic cost for reconditioning.

might as well post an update to this: built a manley wiseco 2.3 .020 motor. had 3 rods and went on a wild goose chase to find a 4th. Located one 2 hours from home and raced back to machine shop to drop it off. had the bottom end put together within 2 weeks. Its sadly taken me almost a year to get the car back up and running.