If your Meade Super Plossl is "noticeably better" than a typical 10mm symmetrical, it may be difficult, in turn, to noticeably "beat it" with another similar-price/class Abbe or symmetrical. You can certainly try, of course, and you would have no problems selling a nice Japan-made Super Plossl or a nice Abbe, in either case.
It's often easy to keep trying to "better" a particular eyepiece, when you're seeking ultimate fidelity and contrast. Many of us have fallen down that rabbit hole on multiple occasions.
If you find your 9.7mm Meade repeatedly shrugs off contenders and keeps making you happy, then consider it a sign that you have a very good, "tough-to-beat" eyepiece. On the other hand, as your observing skills develop and improve, you may begin to notice that other aspects of eyepiece design and performance become more important to you, personally (i.e. wider fields, off-axis correction, eye relief, lateral color, transmission "tone" or color "temperature," etc.). Trust your eyes and trust your skill.
For what it's worth, the sharpest/highest-contrast 10mm-class standard-field eyepiece I ever used was a particular 10mm Clave'. Have I compared and evaluated all other available 10mm-class eyepieces, past and present? Of course not. Nobody has. That's part of the "appeal" and part of the hunt, though: to find that single, unanimously regarded, "best" eyepiece ever made (or best eyepiece design ever realized). There are lots of other 10mm standard-field eyepieces out there, and their optical designs vary. Some utilize negative field lenses or lens groups (e.g. "Smyth lens" designs), other non-Smyth designs incorporate three, four, five, or even more lens elements. Don't get caught up in the "this-design-versus-that-design" argument. The fact that a particular eyepiece is an Abbe orthoscopic does not guarantee its superiority over another. Likewise, a 5-element symmetrical is not necessarily "better" than a 4-element counterpart. There is a lot of "room" for variance in design execution. It's not easy to make a superior example of a particular eyepiece design, but it can be easy to make a poor example. There is also plenty of room for variance in eyepiece/telescope design pairings and integration (but that's another complex topic for another time).
Best wishes and happy hunting.
Dan
Edited by MisterDan, 26 June 2021 - 12:18 PM.