It cracks me up when somebody feels they have to purchase a variable for $1500+ to shoot animals "the size of mini-vans" (as BobinNH so eloquently put it), when a $300 fixed power will be just as reliable, and the animal will be just as dead.
While this is true, it's just part of the hobby. It's not about need but want. We also don't have to spend countless trips to the range fretting over handload performance when a box of core-lokts would work for most of us. No reason we couldn't all get by with a $300 entry level bolt gun either but that's what being a rifle(or scope) looney is all about. It's not cool to look down our noses at others who spend money on something we see as unnecessary. Not much about hobbies is practical.
