I've owned 4 or 5 Vortex scope. My gen1 Razor 5-20X50 is a very good scope. I still have a few gen 1 PSTs. I won't buy another one. My Leupold and Swarovski scopes have never failed me and the glass in those scopes is amazing.

The razor series of scopes and binos are of good quality and compare well with their peers in the price range.
Any of the lower priced stuff I wouldn’t trust.

I can't speak to their 'razor' line of scopes but I've a had a Viper PST-210-S1A 2.5 x 10 x44mm on my .17hmr for about 7 years now. Had the send the original one back right away (very poor glass and super small and sensitive eye box), got a bunch of run around from the person I talked to...but eventually agreed to replace it after seeing it.

Replacement scope was marginally better (glass) but still poor performance in low light and eye box still very touchy.

As for the 'wonderful warranty' everyone likes to tout, wake up! The replacement cost of the scope (their cost) is built into every scope they sell. If they would just offer a limited warranty and put that money into making a BETTER product...they wouldn't have to honor that (already paid for) warranty.

It's a so-so scope in daytime, bright light. I wasn't really expecting that much from it....and it didn't disappoint (isn't much of a scope). So lesson learned for me. No more Vortex scopes (overpriced for you get IMO). Lots of people getting suckered in by the warranty offer.

I bought a PST2 and had to return it out of the box. The vertical adjustment ring was binding really bad

I’ve had an 11-33 razor spotter for many years and it’s been great.

I don’t usually consider vortex when buying new now. There is almost always a better price/quality combo for whatever you’re looking for

They did not go downhill recently. Just more people have tried them, and found out they are not that great.

eye box is part of the optical design - it's not going to change scope to scope barring a major flaw in assembly. That's one of the biggest things you pay for in better optics. Usually cheap optics have bad eye boxes and lots of chromatic abberration (CA) once you get off direct center of the optical axis. Once you go up a bit, the eye box gets way more forgiving and the CA goes away a little. Once you go to the top of the line scope, you can move your eye around a bit and not see much CA at all.

I agree 100% that you pay for the warranty - it's just built into the cost. Part of the reason it became such a draw with Vortex is that back in the day, many folks had problems with other manufacturers and warranty service was bad (Leupold comes to mind). So Vortex didn't necessarily have to build bulletproof products because the competition didn't either, and Vortex changed the industry in a very positive way from that perspective. I do think they need to get better about putting higher quality into their higher-priced lineups, but I'm not sure it really impacts their sales in a meaningful amount at this point.

It strikes me they are like several other optic companies. Bushnell/ Athlon/ Vortex and probably others. If you buy their top tier products you get high quality and value for your money. If you drop down to the lower price spectrum it’s hit or miss depending on model so you have to do your homework.

Vortex - heavy, decent glass, good warranty (which you will need at some point in my experience), good prices on some models which makes them attractive, especially to people who aren't typically scope aficionados.
I've owned a couple, but look elsewhere now when shopping for optics. Burris is a better buy IMHO and gets a look from me any time i'm looking for a scope. I've always liked Leupold as well and regard them higher than Vortex in all categories.

I bought two Vipers when they first came out, a 2-7 and a 3-9. The 2-7 was going to replace a Fullfield II on my daughter’s .243. I looked through both scopes at night and the low light clarity was much better on the Fullfield II. Sent both scopes back.