Formidilosus,
I found your statement very interesting: "For me it's hard to understand why someone would want a scope to dial, but have no good reference for wind/misses...."
I started experimenting seriously with longer-range shooting in the 1970's, mostly at varmints but also at big game, because I worked for a couple years as a pronghorn guide who sometimes need to finish off poorly-shot animals. Way back then (which might now be considered the Paleolithic Era) a simple plex-type reticle was an enormous leap over the plain crosshairs common before then. If you knew the subtension between the points of the heavy posts and the center crosshairs, then it was relatively easy to correct for elevation and windage. It wasn't always precise enough for long-range varmints, but worked very well on big game out to 500 yards, or even more--if the shooter practiced some.
Your mention of missing is most interesting, because none of us who used plexes back then (either for ranging or correcting) missed big game very often. I can recall only a couple of mine on big game. One was on a pronghorn wounded by client, which I missed by around 6 inches at around 550--then corrected the hold and killed. That was with a plain plex-reticle in a 3-9x scope. But unlike today, we didn't have laser rangefinders, so limited our shots to around 500.
The other was one of the two biggest caribou bulls I've taken. The range was around 450, estimated again by the reticle, and I'd crawled for quite a way to get within that range, since the wind was very stiff, but consistent. At the shot the bullet splashed maybe 1-2 inches in front of the bull's chest (the rifle was a NULA .30-06 with a 180-grain boattail at about 2800). My mis-judgement occurred because I was too low to the ground, below most of the wind, and could not stand up or he'd spook. The first shot was spot-on for elevation, and the plex reticle allowed a second shot landed in the top of the bull's heart.
If you know the subtension of a plex-type reticle, and have done some practicing, my experience is that wind-holds are certainly close enough for big game out to 500--if you're shooting in conditions where hunters who wouldn't even consider shooting over 500 might consider trying. (Varmint shooting is something else, where windage and elevation hashmarks are very useful, even well under 500 yards.)
But a blown wind-call is one thing. Within 400-500 yards, missing a big game animal high or low enough to require reticle reference marks for "correction" seems a little chancy, because the shot could just as easily be a wound instead of a miss.
This is why I'm sort of baffled by so many new plex reticles with the heavy posts so far toward the edges of the field of view that they might as well be thin crosshairs. But with plex-posts subtending 5-6 inches of the center crosshairs at 100 yards, I never had much difficulty holding (or correcting) for wind out to 400-500.
