I know only a handful of people who are capable of shooting the difference of a higher end smallbore match rifle and an entry level match rifle.
However, I certainly can see the difference when a master class shooter gets on the line against an expert class shooter with the class of rifle - the difference e will be small but it will be there.
As far as bench shooting goes, I have seen re-barreled Martini International actions match up against the 54 Anschutz , 37 Remington, and 52 Winchester, but at the same time these are top shelf shooters.
The tricked out 10/22's and lower level match rifles were always left behind.
In the gopher patch it is a different ball game, but the better shooter is still going to win out no matter what the other guy is shooting.
I like .22 match rifles, but have been out of the competitive scene for so long I am not a threat to anyone in a 3 position competition, no matter what I am shooting, so am not really worried about buying a $3,000 rifle right off the bat if i was going to get back into it!
That being said, I have several rifles well over 50 years old in the vault that will still win a National match with the right person behind them.
Cat