I see...you're talking about actual, noticeable distortion of the size of objects....I've always called it the "keyhole" effect....where the center of your sight picture is larger than the edges.
If you are seeing this at a level thats easily noticed, you likely have a damaged scope. 100% of all glass has flaws...generally the more expensive scopes are a lot closer to perfect than the cheaper ones. But to be able to see and identify specific flaws is generally hard to do.
You shouldn't notice a keyhole effect, or barrel distortion, on any scope that costs more than $79.99 at 2x mag. So I would send that one back as well.
As for trying a T96, I happen to be running one of those....the 4-16x56....and I love it. It's also in a different price point stratosphere. I happened to find mine as a showroom demo and saved some $.
Everyone's eyes are different, so when I look through a scope I see what I see. And in my eyes, my Leica Magnus has a friendlier eye box and eye relief. The colors, clarity and light gathering is a dead heat b/t the two. The Leica is shorter and a bit lighter, and the turrets on both are firm and true. Mine has the bdc exposed turrets that look very similar to the Polar's. Both have an illuminated 4a reticle and both are just as you would want a red dot to be....tiny, clear and no bleeding.
I don't think you could go wrong with either, but I also thought highly of the Meopta.
That said, I really think you may have gotten a lemon Meopta. Regardless, the Polar t96 and the Magnus are both different calibers of glass altogether.
I will say that I've found the Magnus for sale at some incredible discounts at multiple places. Your source for the Meopta, Scopelist, had one for $1000 off it's retail of $3200. Not sure what's going on there, but that's a lot of scope for the $$. Good luck.