I did not do a lot of digging but I was seeing the apaches at ~~250 each, the steiners run about 190 if you look, sometimes as low as $170.USD
I was at the optics counter the other day of the big box, as my son is getting old enough to get a good pair of binocs for himself. They showed by the apaches and I compared them side by side and I felt that steiners were sharper. The apaches may have been a tad brighter, but the edge to edge sharpness was in the steiners favor.
If you look at the steiner line, all the binocs run about 450 and up except for the offshore made super compacts and the Military Marine 8x30's This is because they make so many of them for military use that they have one production line that is dedicated to just that model. I have several friends who have served in US armed forces who say that the Steiners are the issued glass to every one else in NATO and it seems everyone in europe has a pair.
As far as the standards go, I really do not know. I know mine have lasted for about twenty years, have gone to alaska three times, countless other trips, daily use by me as a contractor when I would use them to examine details without pulling out the ladder if possible, maybe five hundred trips to ball games and the like and the only issue I have had was the blistered rubber, and that was solely my fault. on the dash, direct sun, maybe a ninety five degree day, closed car. they were maybe 200 degrees when I picked them up, the amazing thing was they held fogless after that till I sent them in.
The steiners are cool in that they are sort of your set it and forget it binoculars, When you set the focus on them to the directions which is about 30 yards, the depth of field is so great that you rarely ever have to to touch the focus ring again.
That said, Weems & Plath are pretty good manufacturers, I own a sextant by them, and it is top notch.