Okay @SharpeXB I have read this whole thread several times over and I still don't understand why zoom is not relative to binoculars.
Zoom doesn't do anything that binoculars or other optical aids do. It simply brings distant objects closer.
Ever since WW1 pilots have carried binocs. Then in Korea and Vietnam, enhanced optics were integrated into the helmet.
The zoom feature is not cheating because everyone has it and there is no unfair advantage to using it.
To me, OTH or BVR technology is more like cheating than anything else, getting killed from 20 or 30 miles away has got to hurt, but that is a feature of the aircraft IRL.