A few comments:
-This comes up again and again, so I will just clarify that exit pupil does not mean anything for Ringmaster's eyes. For human eyes, it makes a significant difference.
-It is incorrect that your eye can not use an exit pupil larger than the eye pupil. It can and it does, by moving slightly and superimposing images in your brain for greater detail and contrast comprehension. There is, of course a limit to how larger of an exit pupil you can use and the compromise (for variable scopes) is between exit pupil and magnification. As the light gets lower and your eye pupils dilate, the exit pupil takes on an increasingly greater importance.
ILya
I see your second paragraph doesn't support your first.
An optic with lesser quality may have a better exit pupil than a better optic. But all you get is a brighter unresolved image.
