I am in the less is more camp but I can underststand and I do appreciate and agree with the "pride of ownership" thing.

I'm learning that, pound for pound, a scope with fewer bells and whistles where the expense has gone into better engineering and clearer glass usually results in respect for the item and better performance. So for me, I now flit between 32mm and 40mm, the exception being........

On talking to my target shooting team mates, (25yd .22 lr benchrest), who think nothing of having scopes up to or beyond 20 magnification with 50mm lenses, (but set them on 12x), they tell me that you don't want to be on your limits of magnification so it's best to have plenty in reserve. I can sort of see the logic in that but ideally I need it explaining in more detail.