Yes, people with good or corrected vision can see another person's handgun night sights, in near or total darkness, from 25-40 feet.
They can definitely be seen, no doubt about that. They were designed to be seen.
The snickering and scoffing is about there being such a significant risk of night sights giving away your position to a bad guy that it becomes a good argument for not using them. Which is absurd and tactical masturbation at its finest.
There are good arguments for not using really bright tritium sights (mainly giving away your position)
