After thinking about the "tight tolerence" theory, I would have to say I think I am rejecting it. Here is my reason why...

The theory would hold that the reason the power ring is so tight is because the scope is built to incredibly exacting tolerances. However, if I loosen the eyepiece lock ring in order to make adjustments to the eyepiece,(for the purpose of making focus adjustments), the entire eyepiece assembly can actually be wigled back and forth. If I look through the scope while doing this and holding the scope still I can actually see the reticle moving around in the sight picture.

Now this is not a problem once the lock ring is tightend. In fact it locks down perfectly.

However, if I am to believe that these scopes are made to such exacting tollerences that it causes the power ring to be overly stiff, then clearly there should no such movement in the eyepiece rings.

After some more time thinking about this I actually think the issue is that some part of the power ring is NOT made to the proper tolerences. If the tolerences were truely exact each scope would require approximately the same amount of force to adjust the ring. From the responses I have heard here and elsewhere that is definetly not the case.