@koshkin I was being sarcastic, I wasn't trying to insinuate a payola scheme or anything... sorry man.
That said, I enjoy the detail and knowledge you put into your reviews and hope there is some way these companies compensate you for your time and energy, not necessarily for favorable treatment.
I see, and agree with, many of your points.. still bummed at Steiner though.
Steiner revamping/refreshing/updating the P4XI sounded like a great idea to me, it's just the execution of it that irks me; they got so much right the first time around by keeping the design pragmatic versus gimmicky, and it's like they forgot that. The dot was daylight bright partly because it was just a dot, nothing too big or fancy to try and illuminate, it was only a 1-4 (when 1-6's where the new thing) but the glass was better than most, so it was fine, just simple things like that...
I actually like green dots (green illumination), I ran a Holosun 510C in green on a MPX for USPSA PCC for a season and it was fast as hell and jumped right out at me. But, every other type of dot or illuminated reticle I own or use is red, so due to familiarity/muscle-memory I'm stuck with red until everything else is available in green too. I'm not kidding either, I'm drinking the kool-aid, green>red and I think sooner or later it'll overtake red in popularity just like green has in visible laser tech. Consistency is important though, and since most other illuminated optics are red, it's still the de facto "Industry Standard" and Steiner should accommodate that reality.
What you said about BDC's being really popular makes perfect sense to me, I get it, because most gun owners are just gun owners, not real shooters, and don't know dick. Gimmicks sell product. But IMO the P4Xi got it's reputation mostly from guys who actually shoot, and at the time it first came out it wasn't as fancy as some and it's BDC was actually boring compared to the other LPVO's out at the same time with their horseshoes and circles and donuts of death, etc. And at ~$500ish, it was too pricey for the Primary Arms/Strike Eagle/Burris/Bushnell crowd (I only bought one because I was too cheap for a Razor at the time haha). But... the thing is, they addressed the reticle, someone at Steiner had the balls to grow up and move on to a real reticle... but then some joker (probably from marketing) was like "that bright-ass dot is too simple, how's about something cooler like a diamond or something?" haha.
Meh. It might be fine. Could've been a classic though IMO.