I agree and I disagree with this. I now have 3 of the gen3's but I didnt and wouldnt pay the full $3k market price for the reasons others have stated with the price being so close to the top shelf optics.
IMO which carries less than 0 weight, the Gen3's price point should be around 2400. The glass is significantly better than the gen2's which was my chief complaint of that series and I think the elevation in price is warranted considering the amount of investment that likely went into providing the better quality glass. At 2400/2500 it is also far enough away from ZCO and TT that I wouldnt consider looking at them. When placed side by side to a ZCO, I could not discern any noticeable difference in the glass when on the powers I typically shoot (< 20). I also personally prefer the EBR7 reticles over the other offerings but that could be because i've been using them for 5 years now.
While I've never had to use it, Vortex's warranty helps me sleep at night considering the one time I did have to use a repair service on an optic that was twice the cost of my Gen2's, the manufacturer charged me almost a 1/3 of my purchase price...and the optic was less than 2 months old. Vortex would have just fixed it. I also like that they lengthened it so it fits on my profiles better with lower rings.
The turrets are still mushy and i still dislike the turret locking mechanism but at significantly less cost of a ZCO, i can live with that. I also think that if Vortex lowered the Gen3 price to that 2400 area it'd eat market share over the ZCO / TT's. If those ever came down to the low 3k range (3300 / zco or 3800 / TT in the same magnification class), then things would get really interesting in the decision process.
The price increase of the Gen2's will ultimately be its downfall IMO. The market is already flooded with them and they can be had pretty consistently for around 1500 / 1600 which prices them well out of getting them new. You couple that with Vortex's warranty and there's no reason to buy new. If memory serves, I believe this same scenario played out with the Gen1's back in the day.
