A younger person with good eyes can do fine spending $600 +/-.Over the hill, spend more. The improvement in glass decreases with money spent until you're not getting much more even though you are spending a lot more. However, when your eyes need all the help they can get, just to do what was no problem thirty years ago, those small gains mean a lot.

To the discussion I will ad that "buy once, cry once" does not apply to optics. Coatings age. Technology advances. Buy what you need to last several years, then expect to buy again to stay in the same tier.