So my recent purchase of a Leupold VX6HD 2-12 for a Recce build has me wondering about the choices. This scope has the Firedot Tri MOA reticle and seems to be a good choice for a 0-400 yd platform. What do the tactically oriented scopes bring to the table that a good hunting scope doesn't?

It is hard to distinguish one from the other unless you go to the extremes.

Hunting scope -

Light weight
Capped adjusters
Fixed focus
Simple reticle

Tactical scope -

Durability over weight
Exposed adjusters
Adjustable focus
Ranging reticle

Ive found that with high end scopes the difference is in focal plane when it comes to hunting and tactical.
That and of course turret size. I like my hunting scopes to have covered turrets as Im always throwing them in or out of vehicles, riding a horse, or dragging it around the bush.

Exterior finish - hunting may have some gloss to it or some trim (leuopold's gold ring), tactical will go out of its way to be "nothing black"

Cross hair choices - hunting will almost always be a basic Dual-X type, or maybe single post and cross hair.  Tactical scopes will get you mildot, holdover marks, etc

Other features - illuminated cross hairs or enhanced w/ dot, more likely to find FFP on tactical types, etc.

Things like side focus or adjustable objective I tend to see on higher mag scopes vs. not on lower mag scopes.  Of the "tactical" style scopes like this the big difference seems to be in cross hairs.

The line has seriously been blurred the last 10 years or so, but frankly weight and turret height are usually the most common differences. Leupold’s CDS certainly challenges the adjustment argument with a low-profile turret and Bushnell’s BDC reticle and others for range and holdover estimation.   The greatest difference is going to be between precision and hunting scopes.

All of these examples just reinforce the lack of clear differences. Both hunting and tactical scopes come with capped or open turrets, the latter often with locking and RTZ features. Same with illuminated reticles and MOA drops. Focus too, although thats more a difference between lower magnification and higher. I've noticed that the tactical scopes seem to want to keep the objective size down. The Nightforce 2.5-10 had a 24 and 32 objective for the longest time. I think they only recently went to >40mm with one model. Seems counter-intuitive, since you would want to keep the light transmission for a given magnification in the realm of a 4mm+ exit pupil. So, why do tactical scopes lag in this area?

Adjusters can be capped on good tac scopes (and often are)

Capped windage is becoming more common, but not elevation.  I can’t think of many (or any) high end “tactical” scopes that come with a capped elevation adjustment besides some LPVO options.

Adjustable parallax is a common difference. Hunting scopes are usually fixed parallax.