I'm benchmarking scopes by my unscientific but highly revealing "deer stand challenge", ie. if you can see enough to place a shot after dawn at my ladder stand, the scope is fine. If you can see details like antlers, it's good. So far the lowest spec scope that has passed is Meopta Meopro 4-12x50, the highest spec that hasn't is Leupold VX-5HD 3-15x56.
That's a case of $699 MSRP / $500-ish street price scope outperforming a $1,299 one, just as an one example out of many.
That's an interesting observation that I wouldn't have expected. Can you elaborate on why you reached that conclusion?