haven't heard of it before now, but I suspect Nightforce is realizing the huge market share they are missing out on, and that's why they are doing this. "less complex manufacturing process" I take to mean either they have improved their tech to make it more efficient and they are able to offer these at a lower price point, or they are cutting corners compared to their other lines( my guess is the latter). Cheap scopes are getting better and better and closing the gap between them and the "high class" offerings. spending that extra $100, $200, $1k you get a diminishing return. Yeah they are really good scopes, even exceptional, but you can get a lot for your money and spend half as much or even less than that.
That being said I would be interested to see how these new ones compare to their top of the line offerings, and against other cheaper class scopes.