Optical quality is a funny one. I know the old Tasco World Class was mentioned above but I have a 6 x 40 on my Ruger 77/22 and it does the job well. I did try a more expensive scope but the ocular end had too large of a diameter and the bolt handle kept hitting it so I stuck with the World Class. Can't remember the last time I had to sight it in. A World Class on a 300m+ rifle would be a waste of time.
It depends on what you want to do and how tricky you get. If you have a rangefinder, chronograph, hand load everything (properly), and use a ballistic's program you can really start pushing the boundaries of range.
My ex girlfriend's old man had a Tikka in .17 Remington. He used to brag how he never missed a shot and rub it in when I'd tell him I'd missed the odd one. Anyway the first time I went spotlighting with him we saw a cat in the spotlight about 150m away. I stopped the ute and he said "Get closer". He kept telling me to get closer until we were about 60m away. Bang - dead cat. This went on all night and I doubt he took a shot with the .17 past 80m. Then he had the audacity to brag that he didn't miss a shot.
It's like bragging about never crashing a car when you don't actually drive over 20kph.
I don't find any joy barrelling a rabbit at 80m with the .25/06 but I do with the .22 long rifle. I don't find any joy hitting a rabbit at 200m with the .25/06 but I do with the .222 CZ527. I do start enjoying myself with the .25/06 and .22/250 Ackley when I start laying rabbits out past 300m and you struggle to do that with crap optics.
I had a funny one with the 4-16 x 50mm Bausch & Lomb just the other month. I've owned this scope since the late 90's and was asked to come for a shot at a SARA 600 yard shoot. Anyway I knew the velocity of the rounds I'd loaded plus the BC of the projectile so knew how much I'd have to elevate the scope at 600 yards with the help of a ballistic's program. First sighter I fired was low and only half way to where I thought it would be. Turns out that the scope manual says 1/4" clicks at 100m. After 15 years I found out it actually has 1/8" clicks

This has honestly explained a lot of previous head scratching when I'd been sighting this scope in.
I honestly do think that there is a lot of scope snobbery though. Thanks to the internet a lot of people think that if you don't drop 2 grand on a scope you'll never hit a thing.
I could bring up the story of the Australian Army when they bought the Accuracy International sniper rifles with the high dollar ($3500 approx) Schmidt & Bender scopes. Turns out they wouldn't track or hold zero. If I remember correctly my mate who was a sniper at the time told me they found that Schmidt & Bender had outsourced cheaper internal scope components which didn't do the job. They all were replaced under warranty and the replacements worked as designed.
This is where I start to think that you can actually pay too much sometimes for no real improvement over some cheaper models.