I'm a scope snob, LOL.
In my teens and twenties, scope quality didn't matter much to me. (1) Because I didn't want to spend the money. (2) Because I didn't have the Optical Knowledge (3) Because I mainly hunted, and most of my shots were under 300 yards.
In my thirties, I started shooting long range and found out quick that cheap quality scopes sucked. For the last 25+ years, I save every dime I can in order to buy the best scopes that I can.

Straight powered scopes work great for certain types of shooting, but most people prefer variable magnification scopes for the variety of shooting that they allow the shooter to do with them.
If you have never used or owned a quality scope in the $1k - $3k+ price range, then you will never know what you are missing in what good optics really are. Once you look thru and use a High quality precision scope, you won't ever look at a cheap quality scope again.