Every company brings something different to the table, Frank. There will always be features that individuals like and those that they don't. On the models that record, Pulsar made the move to do away with the hassle and expense of external cords and recorders. Here, it is also important to keep in mind that the vast majority of the people who buy thermal scopes really don't care about recording and won't go to the trouble of figuring out cables and external recorders. Like you said, everything m̶u̶s̶t̶ should go into one's decision to buy a particular model. When your $200 Vortex gets thermal and recording capability, let me know. In the mean time, the only marketing flaw I see for Pulsar right now is that their success is ahead of production and the Core RXq30V is in high demand.