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With any optic (scopes, camera lenses, eye glasses) the manufacturing quality of the glass components themselves play a huge role. And making high quality optic glass is an expensive process. This is why the same 3-9x40 scope from Leupold or Nikon costs more than BSA and similar "cheap" scopes. Also build quality comes into play in the body of the scope - how airtight is the design (any amount of moisture insude the scope's interior will effectively ruin it), impact resistant etc

Selecting a scope on any kind of budget is a trade off between features and quality.

Personally I try to err on the side of quality without going overboard into overpriced prestige brands. Having years of great experience with the Nikon brand as a semi-pro photographer, I naturally gravitated to that brand. But Leupold and others are just as good quality from what I've seen. Burris and higher-end Bushnells are good too.

That said I know I personally will be more happy with the optical quality and clarity of basic fixed 6x40 Leupold or Nikon than the bells and whistles of a 4-12x50 BSA with illuminated retitled etc

Another key consideration is the overall size of the scope. A great inexpensive but quality brand is Millett. I had one of their 4-12x50 scopes and it was great optics and features and price. But it was so big and bulky it didn't fit well on my AR and made my bolt-action rifle feel unbalanced and unstable. So I got rid of it in favor of a smaller 2-10x42 Nikon