Seems like they are all so close, that it either becomes a feature or reticle you really want/like that one has the others don't, or you go strictly by price. So the "winner by a nose" becomes what feature is important or what thing do you value more, that's something really only the individual can evaluate. Unfortunately it's kind of where "buy to try" comes in, or you have to get to a match etc. where you can hopefully handle all 3. Don't get me wrong these reviews are amazing to get 90% of the way there to the right decision but if all 3 products are say 90% the same, the last 10% becomes individual preference. That's where I think the depth of these reviews is amazing because so many factors of the optics are compared head to head.
For example some folks really like the big bold turret marks on the Zeiss, but I'm personally not a fan. Even though my eyes are the downslope, I like the larger lettering on whole mils, which I wish more scopes had, but the half mill marks and the marks for the second rotation (we all should be able to add 10 to the #) make it way too "busy". That said I'd love to see bigger numbers on the vortex/theos. By contrast I like the Zeiss windage knob markings much more. Some people are huge on warranty so Vortex might get the nod there. Other folks want daylight bright so maybe that's a factor. If you really want a tooless zero, the Theos has that, if it works well I wasn't impressed with the tooless zero on the XTR Pro. Even brand matters, for example if I have 6 vortex scopes now with the EBR-7C reticle and that's what I'm used to, do I want to throw a different reticle into the mix.....maybe not.
Logically in my mind the biggest factors in a scope should be the things you interact with, turrets, optics, reticle (not necc. in that order). I admittedly hate mushy turrets, even if functionally they work great. Others care less about turret feel and have to have maximum optical quality at a price point.
Now of course mechanical reliability, and accuracy of adjustments matters, but we all know those vary sample to sample so there's no easy way to test them that's meaningful across a large sample size. Aside the tracking testing SH does, that they no longer release the results of due to manufacturer pressure.
