To each their own, that is for sure. I will preference all of this by saying the 10-22 is an excellent field gun. Lots of racoons dispatched around here with one. But;
I would rather place the shot correctly, or chose a better caliber for the distance I am shooting. Doesn't matter what action you use to achieve that criteria, but you do need to spend a lot of time at the range "shooting at a known distance at a stationary target" to figure it out. Once that is figured out, follow up is not as important.
Don't quote me on this but I think the 10-22, 452/3 and 77/22 all come with the same standard barrel length, but the 77 and CZ are factory available with up to 24 inch barrel, so not sure what you are getting at.
IMO, I just think that value is what it is. I don't hear too many people talking about how they plan to leave their 10-22 to their kids. Ask someone who owns a model 77 (any caliber) what they plan to do with it. Is it worth the extra 300$? For me sure. But that spread does buy a lot of ammo. It seems a lot of the guys that own them tend to put an extra 3-4-500$ into them anyways.
I can out shoot stock 10-22s all day with my 453 Lux if we both use the same optics. But does 1/2 inch on paper matter? Not really, more than accurate enough for a squirrel. Does the fact that there is never a FTF FTE and that it will shoot anything, subs or shorts matter? Yes, to me that matters a great deal.
happy shooting,
C