I really should find someone with one of these “Alpha glass” scopes to go shooting with me so I can see what I can’t see with my current scopes.
While I can't speak to SWFA, as I've never been behind one of them, the difference in quality between alpha glass in a rifle scope and lesser offerings is a very real thing. The threshold for it
mattering depends on priorities, hunt situation, expected conditions, etc.
Where it shows up most obviously in functional terms, in a hunting situation, is low-light performance, and looking into shadows. Especially very dark, physically deep shadow, on a very bright day. We get that a lot out west with mule deer, Coues deer, etc. It's not just the glass, but the coatings too that help with this. Cheaper scopes just do not transmit the light enough in many situations like that. But the difference is often stark, even just at the range - getting behind alpha glass, things just "pop" more, generally speaking. Whether that's needed is more dependent on any given situation. A good reticle makes a big difference in the usability of a scope, too, though, and can allow a lot of lesser offerings to be perfectly useable in low light, within legal shooting hours. The traditional duplex reticles, and especially some of the thicker duplex-type German reticles, are surprisingly good for low-light aiming, while a lot of the "tactical" reticles in really expensive scopes can be pretty crap in aiming usability in very low light.
Another place quality differences show up is edge-to-edge clarity, fish-eye, etc. Cheaper optics generally just have more fish-eye in general at the edges, more shadowy fringe at the edges, etc. While Swarovski's scopes in particular, especially their newest models, not only have nearly perfect edge-to-edge clarity, they've also managed to get a much wider field-of-view than others of the same power range, etc.
With scopes, the differences show up even more in legitimate tactical situations than hunting ones though, where someone might sit in the glass for hours on a rifle - eye strain occurs far quicker with lower quality glass. That's much less of an issue with a hunting scope, obviously.
But that's also why you get your biggest gains with alpha glass in binos and spotting scopes - endurance. I'll literally spend over 10-12hrs on some longer days behind glass, especially in the summer scouting for mule deer. The difference in experience is
stark. The top glass (Swaro, Kowa, etc) will give you anywhere from 15-45 mins more usability as the sun goes down over the next level of glass, and the ability to peer into mid-day shadows is also obvious and instant, side by side. But for me, the ability to minimize eye fatigue over hours is what makes it worth it to spend 4k on an optic, over 2k or 3k offerings of the same power range. Price seems directly related to performance on this. It's such a difference that if I had a budget of $2500, I'd put $2k into used alpha binos, and $500 into a new SWFA for the rifle. Without hesitation.
That said, all it takes is 1 time for you to miss out on a monster buck after sunset, because you can't find it in your scope while it's just perfectly clear in your binos, to be absolutely ruthless in demanding the best scope glass possible the rest of your life. Ask me how I know.