This is always a very tricky situation as it is difficult to know what way to jump. If you go with top end glass, especially if you can buy well second hand, then there is no question that you will, in all probability, get your money back should you ever sell and you will get to use top end glass while you have the binos. So, total cost of ownership will be low assuming you do sell at some point. On the other hand there is some very good glass in the mid-tier stuff and my view is that if you pick carefully it will do everything you require as a stalker. When you think about it there are some simple tests shooting magazines could do. that would cost virtually nothing, to determine which bino is better at last light - stick up a newspaper in the evening and using different binos record the time when you could no longer read the headline. The fact that they don't do this test should tell you something, especially in view of the advertising budgets of the first tier optics companies. While there is no question that they offer great service and wonderful magazine adverts my position is that their glass doesn't always offer you a practical advantage as a stalker, in fact my experience has been that their glass isn't always the best.
I use Minox HGs and can see more than enough out of them to go stalking in commercial forestry for sika that only emerge in the last few minutes of legal shooting light and so I simply don't need any more. I especially don't need to pay for the massive marketing machine associated with some other brands as I suspect the deer will never know about this feature but, as I've said, someone buying your binos from you after a few years will know and pay for this.
The other point I will make is that for the professional stalker the additional level of service provided by the top tier brands may well make it worthwhile to pay the extra £1000 for the binos as he may depend upon them for his income. If I was using mine professionally then I'd probably pay the extra cash just for the peace of mind. The service offered by the second tier companies is more than good enough for most recreational stalkers when viewed in a calculating way plus the money saved would pay for a week at hinds.
Having looked through a few pairs of binos recently I have reached the conclusion that the recreational stalker would probably be well served by the various second tier binos which are often recommended on this site as, quite simply, paying another £1000 is not going to allow him to see anything more or get him another deer. However, we all like nice "stuff" and recently I've been using a Fallkniven F1 which, being honest, doesn't gralloch deer any better than a Mora but I like it and if you are spending that sort of cash on binos then be sure to get something you like no matter what I, or others, think would do the job just fine for you.