some people have an instinctive dislike or unreasonable mistrust of red dots
Not instinctive or unreasonable at all. Based on experience with electronic devices. Not a good idea to become dependent on them, but particularly so for your self-defense sidearm.
I have intentionally shot mine without power and didn’t really feel handicapped. Example, on one of my trijicons on a Glock 19, I took the battery out, remounted it and ran some drills. First, the sights are visible and generally hit where the dot in the window is but when drawing and shooting without the dot I did fine. I think a person should train in this sense because if the dot goes out, and you don’t have a lot of training, your inner fudd might spend an inordinate amount of time looking for a dot. On this particular 19 my brain doesn’t seem to be giving a sht because it’s apparently in que with the target relative to window.
