Welcome to the forum Jp603 !!
I'm afraid you could open up a can of worms on this subject !! on this one you could ask 100 different people and get 100 different answers !!
some people are very picky about their scopes and pay top dollar for their scopes with good reason , a lot are hunters and don't want to miss the buck of a life time because a cheap scope failed or was in accurate or didn't hold zero, some have moderately priced scopes and report good results with scopes in the $300 dollar range, and some are just plan cheap like me !! ( I know Irv & BC2 big surprise ) but let me explain, I am a very casual shooter with my A.R. and my other rifles, I no longer hunt and I don't plan at this point to go into combat , I also live in AZ, so I am not usually shooting in adverse conditions, so for me the so called budget scopes work just fine I have a 3x9 cheapo Remington on my Remington 597 it was part of the combo package and works just fine through the
3x-9x ranges dead nuts accurate !! on my Ruger 10/22 I also have a budget CenterPoint 3x9 illuminated reticle scope it has also been flawless,
Now for my DPMS 223/5.56 I recently purchased another budget scope a 1x4 by 28
Robot Check (click robot check for link)I only have about 200 rounds thru it
and have it sighted in at about 100 yards and so far perfect !! at this point it was well worth the $119.00 investment !! I chose the 1x4 so I could use the 1x
for close up work and the chances of me shooting out past 150 yards is very low, so 4x should do it for me .
the glass seems clear to me ( but I have never looked through Zeiss glass.)
so I guess it all comes down to what you using it for , how often your going use it and at what distance , there are a mess of web sights dedicated to
scopes you can just search best scopes for AR or best budget scopes for AR there are plenty of reviews, I read the reviews and look for the common thread
both good and bad , if I see the same negative comments pop up continuously I avoid the product !!
I'm not sure I helped you, there are plenty of good folks here that have probably forgotten more about optics than I know and I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction , Good luck !!