Optics are just like everything else in life. You get what you pay for 99.9% of the time.
I've always tried to put the best optics that I can afford on every firearm that I own. I do have a few cheap scopes on rimfire's,but all of my centerfire rifles get quality optics,it just doesn't make sense to put cheap optics on something that you need to be precise and accurate every time you're behind the trigger.

For most average hunter's/shooter's that only use their firearms a couple times a year,they can usually get away with cheaper quality optics,but if you use them all the time you'll find out fast that there's a reason quality optics cost so much.They're built to work,and take the constant abuse of cranking the turret knobs up and down.

I recently purchased a Primary Arms 4-14x42 FFP Mil-dot scope for one of my AR-15's. It's a cheap Chinese scope,but it does have excellent clarity. It seems to track decent,but the clicks are a little mushy-not crisp like a quality scope. For $230,it was a good deal,and maybe it will continue working well but I knew going into this scope that it's not as well built as my $1000-$2000 scopes,and I don't expect it to perform as one.

It's hard to beat the price and performance of the Sightron SIII scopes,I own 5 of them,and plan on buying more.