Thermal is getting cheaper, but if I build a rig I’d run with something in the $6k range using some other well known brands.
But we’ll have to agree to disagree re. “better” as I would agree the Hubble scope would be “better” than anything 
But it’s what I’m using it for that defines “better” for me and a lot of hunters I’ve run with.
And oh ya! I AM a hunter (not a sniper). I eat game meat year round out of two large freezers (and my own garden, mostly canned). I can build an AR15 in a 6.8SPC with a good Japanese made (Light Optics Works) Weaver fixed 6x power scope and my Lexel switched tail FET modded C8Fs for about $900. I can kill the same number of pigs or more than a lot of guys with the high end thermal and IR rigs can. This is because I know HOW to hunt and shoot. And pigs in particular, present a WIDE target area that a zoomed in light rig can’t see and track well… after the first pig is shot.
So my 300 yard, WIDE throw C8Fs allow me to make multiple kills quickly without any zooming in or out. The thermal rig I did hunt with last year ALSO ran on a 2x or 3x power- max. Watch some vids and you’ll see that these thermal hunters are not zoomed in. We have to see the whole field at once.
So yes, (any) zoom lights (or scopes) on guns can see further out, but for hunting pigs at night… I want to see where they are ALL at, then work them quickly, at an effective range (under 300 yards), and make ethical kills as I eat what I kill.
So bottom line for me: I can’t LEGALLY hunt any other game animal at night in both states I hunt often, except pigs. As I don’t kill them for sport, I get in close BEFORE “hitting the lights!” then I make the cleanest shots I can usually bagging two or three pigs. It’s all over in about 15 seconds whether using thermal or my lights- doesn’t matter after the first shot what you are looking through- as long as you CAN SEE the field of view and track each shot- and make the kills with them on the run. And you’re not doing that zoomed in at 12x power… through a light or scope.
I know the OP is about zoomies here and so I certainly can agree the zoomer gets WAY out there better than a reflector… but some applications (hunting pigs, the only legal night game I can hunt) don’t nessesarily benefit from a zoomed thermal, IR or white light source.
And no, I didn’t build zooming IR lights when I messed with that rig about 4 yrs. back. The problem wasn’t the lights, but the head gear which I sweat through on hot Texas nights killing pigs. Just too much sh*t to haul around and get a good view through. And the novelty of thermal is appealing, but they are bulky scopes and as I can do no better than my white lights (and I will never kill 5 pigs to have to butcher at a time)… it’s just not worth the money. I just don’t need to make YouTube videos of me slaughtering 20 pigs a night!
That said… IF I wanted to kill coyotes at 600 yards with my target 260ai rig- at night? Then yes a zooming IR or thermal scope on a VERY HEAVY gun, with a heavy, long barrel, on a VERY solid rest with would work. And I have done it with IR out of a blind 20ft high (drinking whiskey and smoking cigars until 3am… several times 
, but hope you know that kind of guns/hunt is forbidden in most parts of the world) I will certainly set my zoomie to widest possible beam and do the drill :
