You all need to remember that the AR and T/A where made for one year only so Mopar could compete against the Mustangs and Camaro in the Trans Am road racing, those cars where never really popular with most young street guys due to the SB, 6 packs and automatics
Mopar had the 426 Street Hemi , 440 and 383 Magnums and 440 six packs
As far as the column shifters in the AAR I have seen and heard of a lot of them along with the standard instrument package, it seems like who ever was in charge of production on both the AAR and T/A had to meet a minimum production number and didn't have very high standards on how those cars where equipped and how they turned out
Mopar drop those cars in 1971 due to lack of sells