I have never had an illuminated reticle scope. I had a friend who had one years ago, a Trijicon I think, that had a red dot in the center of the reticle and I was impressed with it. I ordered a new scope a few days ago from Tract. I had originally wanted an illuminated red dot in their T-Plex reticle 2.5-15x42 until I saw the price difference between that and the plain T-Plex reticle 3-15x42 - $440 more. Same glass, etc. in each. It's a nice feature, but I just could not see it (pun intended). Tract scopes are excellent quality and come with a lifetime, no paperwork needed, no cost warranty. No matter if you are the original owner or not. So, not an issue for me about the quality or any future maintenance expense, other than changing out a common CR2032 battery. Maybe this feature is cheaper on other scopes? I don't know. I was sold on wanting a Tract Toric and the illuminated feature just wasn't what I was willing to pay that much more for.
