Thorny,
They are simply remembering the time when a cheap scope was just that, assembled by little hands new to that work.
Sometime in the recent past, humans stopped being involved in the building of scopes and went into an oversight only role of the machine building them. The Vari X folks still do it the old way, but, they should for the money they get.
Here about the place I have a Zeiss, hopelessly fogged up internally, that I'm saving my pennies and nickels to hopefully have it brought back to new condition-and hopefully, the condition and optical clarity will be almost as good as some of the newer "cheap" scopes out there today, 'cept, I doubt it.
Time marches on, you know. Find any good crow receipes yet? I'm sure you could use them with the combination you are using.
Best,
Ted
