Just make sure you send the right scope back to me
This might explain why in another thread on the ZP5 some have talked about QC issues and their copies of the ZP5 not performing so well.
Seriously, how did I get so lucky with the ZP5 and K318i, but this attests to a point I've made before, when we do these scope reviews we are usually sampling one scope and if there is wide sample variation within a particular model that can be somewhat deceiving. For example, my copy of the Leupold Mark 5 3.6-18x44 really struggled optically while the copy you had you've mentioned performed very well for an ultra short. Does that make you or I wrong in our assessment, not necessarily, what it means is that sample variation may be such that some models are poorer performers than others. We see this in camera lenses as well, but with certain hardware/software we can determine if the lens is a "dud", I can't tell you how many times I've seen on camera forums "my copy sucked so I sent it back" but pixel peeping a 45MP image will show a lot more defects I'd imagine than what we can see through the riflescope with our naked eye.
Along this same line, is it possible the copy of the K525i you had was a "dud"? Have you been able to look through other K525i's to ascertain if this one performed more poorly than the average?