The widespread use of optical substrates in advanced sectors like space optics, lasers with high power, and aerospace necessitates increasingly stringent standards for surface quality, demanding minimal defects and superior surface characteristics, including reduced subsurface damage. Optical components also play a crucial role in various optics industries, including telecommunications, aerospace, automotive, and electronics components. Plasma polishing has emerged as a promising technique for improving the surface quality, sub-surface defects, and surface integrity of optical materials, offering advantages such as enhanced efficiency, improved material removal rates, and minimal subsurface damage. This study examines the evolution of surface polishing technology for optical components in recent years, analyzing the principles and development. It elucidates the specific advancements in research concerning optical component surface etching, encompassing both iterative enhancements of traditional techniques and exploration of novel methodologies. Furthermore, the study provides illustrative, typical applications of these advancements. This article offers a state-of-the-art outline of current research on finishing SiO2, glasses, quartz, and Zerodur with plasma-assisted techniques. It also examines an approach to downsizing the resolution limits of plasma processes to a nanometric scale and considering the atomic-level material removal from sample surfaces. The impact of various machining conditions on surface roughness, morphological structure, and MRR, which cause dimensional inaccuracies in manufactured components, has also been addressed. Discussing the medium-pressure plasma process principle, effective process parameters, challenges, research gaps, limitations, and opportunities for outlook research activities are significantly studied through state-of-the-art knowledge. Moreover, promising future research directions in the plasma process are also emphasized and highlighted.