Great points. My 14 year old RMR on my M&P is rugged and great for daylight use at USPSA events - the tritium illumination is long ceased to provide a dot at night.Given the wide-spread, national adoption by all levels of LE and the military, I'm not sure that skepticism is warranted. And think about duty carbines, which are used all the time now in LE. In 2026, are you skeptical of an Aimpoint on a M4? Seeing SageDynamics brutally abuse both open and closed emitter optics and show they are still completely functional and accurate really put all of that out of my mind.
The one caveat (as you know) is not all RDS are the same. Put a SRO on a duty pistol? Eh, probably not. Put a RMR (or now RMR HD) on there? Absolutely.
Duty carbines with Aimpoint et al I totally get. And I'm surely out of touch with what the latest pistol optics can do as far as rugged daily use and battery life. I might have to upgrade to one of the new closed emitter pistol optics!
One of our reservists is an FBI SA, and when he shows up to drill, he carries his Gen 5 G19 under his OCP coat - still night iron sights.