Has to be Dodonpachi for me. Combo scoring system is amazing and it has just the right ammount of difficulty, I felt like I could 1cc the game (never did though, got stuck at stage 4 boss :sadness: ) , later sequels got a bit too ridiculous for me. Honorable mentions go to Espgaluda, because I liked the time slowing system or even running the gauge out and playing it in ultra speed and Castle of Shikigami for the character diversity, with every character there you play basically a totally different game and grazing system is also pretty fun.
I did look into this stuff a couple years ago and from what I remember the whole raid started over a 200$ tax/permit. They dealed in weapons to fund their lifestyle. They were a shitty apocalyptic cult with probably child abuse going on, but last time I checked child welfare is not on atf agenda. What should have happened is 1-2 agents knocking on their door and asking to inspect their weapons. I have little reason to believe they wouldn't just comply. There were already undercover feds in the compound that they were aware of and nothing happened to those agents. While they were a crazy cult I don't think they were a danger to anyone outside. But atf needed their funding and existence justified so they went for a spectacular action instead of a reasonable approach.