Tayous,
I'll have to disagree with you on the cheap scopes. They are OK for range shots in broad daylight, but if you have to change ranges to something you have not sighted in at, make a twilight shot, maybe drop your rifle to transition to a handgun, etc. they fail. A lot of the way a scope fits is in the rings--the cheap scopes you were shooting with may have given you the proper height for a cheek weld, but the higher $ scopes might have not done so (they would need a different set of rings).
However, I will definitely agree with you that the shooter is FAR more important than the scope. Give a $2k rifle, $2k US Optics Scope, and custom match grade ammo to someone who flinches, and he might as well be using a Crossman 10 pump for all the good it will do him. However, once you are a very good shooter, the quality of the scope may make the difference in a life or death (or hit or miss) shot.
M-K
If you really want to learn about scopes, try the .50 shooter board here or at biggerhammer.net. Shooting at 1000 yds. + under a heavy recoil gun is a good test of a scope.
Of the scopes you listed, I would probably put them in the exact order you did. The Tasco (aside from being cheap) does have one benefit--it is a fixed power scope--less optic elements to distort or absorb light, and less to go wrong in the scope.
AFARR