Your thinking is the same as mine. If spending that kind of money, it would be good to have a reticle. Only problem is when you have a rifle scope it's hard not to have it on a rifle.
I purchased a handle on ebay that has a 1/4-20 tripod screw, and got a picatinny rail too, tapped and threaded the rail and can now use my Apex XQ38 as a scanner if I ever decide to. I have a dlock mount that is easy on / off and return to zero. For now the scope is staying on a rifle, but it's nice to have that option. The scope isn't compact like a dedicated scanner and the field of view is a bit tighter, but it will serve the purpose if needed or desired. A Flir PS233 is more compact and could be a contender as well as the ATN Thor HD 1.25-5x. Either of those scopes could do double duty and are quite a bit smaller than some others.