What brand was the battery that came with it? One of those generic Chinese ones or a recognizable brand?

I'm not totally sold on the PA made in China offerings. Made in the same factory as the cheaper clones, I suspect the price difference is a small part additional QA and a large part markup since the anchor point is the price of a real Aimpoint. Like other product sellers, they figured out average rates of fail units as they buy them by the shipping container full, and you're just covered because you paid the 4-5x markup. They could replace your unit many times over and still turn a profit.

If I had money to burn I'd buy an ebay Aimpoint clone and a PA version to disassemble and actually see what the internal differences are. Red dots are relatively simple, there are only so many ways you can slap together a battery, a rheostat, and an emitter that you'd have to intentionally try to make one that doesn't work.