Moving away from battery reliant optics?
I remember when Eotech sights and red dots were showing up on gun ranges about 15yrs ago and how high tech they were. They were because you were basically getting an F16 gun sight on a Carbine and it was so easy to see targets and engage them quickly. I have good eye sight for my age but there have been many times I have taken friends and family members as well as students to the range and people had trouble looking through optics. The best thing about low magnification optics is that is less of a problem for them. Aimpoint is still probable the king of the red dots but Trijicon has the SRS red dot out now and we have a few of them inbound.
Having AA batteries around for your firearm optic is easy and it’s a very common battery to find. There have been design changes to Eotech sights because it was common for the gun sight to have issues with the battery contacts when the batteries were put in forward in relation to the firearm. I assume it had something to do with barrel harmonics but I have witnessed this first hand. The smaller CR123 batter is being used more than the AA batteries and you’ll get a shorter smaller optic. There are always trade offs with firearm optics and even trijicon is moving towards battery powered optics.