I've pointed out to people before that a Trijicon RMR red dot weighs all of 1.17 oz (with a battery). The fact that the red dots protrude from the pistol is a fact, however, I haven't found that it noticeably impacts concealment with a pistol at or behind the hip or in an appendix position. YMMV. For my eyesight with corrective lenses a red dot makes shooting dramatically easier as my prescription allows me to make a positive identification (with respect to if that assailant does or doesn't have a weapon in hand), but makes a front sight fuzzy. Now others get around this by modifying their prescriptions with their optometrist or having one lens for this or that, but I would rather just use my standard glasses at all times.
To the comment about point shooting, point shooting and red dots are not mutually exclusive. There are absolutely times when given proximity to an attacker I would point shoot. And then there are times I wouldn't. I took a two day course solely on reflexive (point) shooting. We literally taped over the sights on our pistols for the majority of the course so that we couldn't use them if we wanted to (consciously or not). The final drill of that course was a walk back drill to see where the wheels started to fall off. By 7 yards the time it took most of us to acquire our sights was offset by the accuracy we gained from using our sights as opposed to point shooting. That's the distance across many of the rooms in my home, it's not particularly long range. This was at the end of two days of 500 rd a day (pre-pandemic ammo prices) when all of us were at our A game.
We often see the "rule of 3s" repeated, that being "most shootings" occur within 3 yd, involve 3 shots, and take 3 seconds or less. But I have never seen someone provide evidence to back up this claim. More so, there have been many shootings that are well outside of that. Shootings are also dynamic, in that people don't generally want to stand still and get shot. An altercation might start close and then the distances increase as people try to get away or move to cover. Sighted fire starts becoming more appealing at distance. As opposed to iron sights an advantage with red dots is you can stay target focused the entire time as you're merely superimposing a dot on a target, not lining up sights and then lining up those sights on the target.
At the end of the day the overwhelming majority of us will never have to use our firearms to defend ourselves. We're all of us taking precautions against something that is statistically unlikely, but we've decided that some level of preparation is still warranted. If someone wants a red dot, light, or laser because they have decided it is beneficial and they don't find using it impacts their likelihood to carry that firearm then more power to them. By the same token if someone doesn't want those items, then more power to them.
In all my years on this forum one of the most prevailing attitudes seems to be to validate our own choices by dismissing the choices of others. It's not needed. I had an instructor that would say, "I won't be in your gunfight". Do what works for you.
