I have a 1st gen the same as yours that has given outstanding service on 2 M1A rifles and 1 AR/15 type, I have gotten into competive shooting and glass is a No No in service rifle. But it still has lots of life still in it, I now use it on the wifes Rock River NM AR/15a4 for load development. You should see the looks that I get when the glass is on that rifle, it looks like a hard core high speed low drag goofer getter.
Back to point when they first came out they where a upper mid-level glass and over the years have been surpassed by all the Big boy scope makers, but there still good scopes today just long in the tooth. I think the optics are made buy Nikon or Hakko both suply lenses to the larger scope makers.
When Springfield started to sell them in there loaded offer demand went thru the roof and the quality when way down, problem scopes are the smaller 6x40 and NOT the 1st gen 4x14x56, I have not heard of one complaint on the big 1st gen other than its just a dated scope. There are newer/better/faster/stronger 6 million dollar bionic scopes on the market but my 1st gen still works and never complains.
