The crossbow choices today are almost mind boggling for someone new to the sport. I'd suggest you continue to study the bows you are drawn to and develop a set of "needs" and then find the xbow that answers those needs and fits your budget.
Five years ago I started with a list that looked something like this. Don't think the order of these is relative to importance
- I had a $1000 budget
- The company behind the xbow had to be proven and their service had to checkout
- Size was important because I hunt from climbers, ladder stands and small blinds
- I wanted an honest 350 fps bow shooting a hunting weight arrow
- The scope needed to have speed compensation because I knew I'd be shooting various arrow weights
- A cocking system was important to have so I could re-cock from a sitting position
- Safety features like auto-safe, anti dry fire were a must have
- String suppressors were a "want"
- Fit and finish had to be very good
- I also didn't want a first year design
That was my list and it served me pretty well. The xbow I bought that year was the Horton (TenPoint) Storm RDX and it hit all of those points and served me very well until the Nitro X came along this past year.
Your point on accuracy is interesting because you can actually find $300-400 xbows that are as accurate as $700-1,000 xbows shooting the same grade of arrow at hunting distances (60 yards or less). Now they very likely won't check off all the "wants" on your list and that's where finding the right xbow get's interesting.
I think what you find in the TenPoint line is that performance bumps are one price builder. You can see that the Titan M1 is 370, then the Turbo M1 is at 380, the Shadow is 390 and the Stealth is 410 fps. And there definitely is value in the narrower Shadow and Stealth, which is very important to hunters with space concerns.
All that said..... If I were considering the group of four mentioned above, I'd be a Turbo M1 guy. Plenty fast, narrow and light with the features I like. I'd probably buy from a dealer vs a retail outlet who would help me upgrade the scope.
Hang in there!