most all illuminated reticle rifle scopes today, the reticle still is there in black as on a regular scope, BUT there is a option to turn on a light that lights up the reticle, MOST good one's have adjustable;e setting as to how bright it lights up(many have color options too)
and the reason is, different brightness setting will help, make you see BOTH the reticle and the target, TOO Much light in LOW Light and you can wash out the target due to too bright a reticle, and then not enough in day time and hard to see it!
This is also a reason why many have different color option, to help in different backgrounds and light conditions!
I am NOT bashing, just saying, that in today's world of rifle scopes, 300 bucks is in the MUCH lower end of things than it ever was!
high end scopes can cost several thousand dollars, and cheap scopes can be from about 50 bucks up.
like all things in life, you get what you pay for to a POINT,
the more options and gadgets you want on a scope, the higher the costs get to get quality parts!
I Sold a ton of optics', rifle scopes included when I had my shop!
MY best advice is stick with brand names, know for good build quality and standing behind there products, and from there, PICK options you MUST have,, that fit your needs best,
then go to a few GOOD shops and look thru possible scopes you might want, look for edge to edge clarity, and keep this in mid,and please take with a grain of salt
Lower to mid level scopes, will be like pick of the litter IMO
put a dozen of them together, and look thru each and you will most likely see small /slight differences!, bench shoot them all, and again you will find slight differences in things from adjustments and how well they hold/move with them
Higher ends scopes, have less of this and thus there higher>almost crazy price tags !
what you loom thur and find GOOD< another might not too, we ALL see things differently, from color to clarity!