NEA with micro red dot weighs about the same as the stock upper HG.
Reflex actually sit a tad higher than micro red dots as battery sits below the lens. Also, really need protective wings for serious use, which may raise higher, and lose most of what's generally a lower 1/3rd co-witness with NEA rail.
There is adequate room/rail space for angled adapter for light and micro red dot (enough that you might be able to fit two micro red dots inline), but most mount lights off of lower HG side rails. Just make sure your light angle mount sits as low to the rail as possible so as to not impede red dot lens. If wanting a light/laser combo, then would recommend mounting off of upper HG.
For maximum lower handguard real estate the modified magpul AK offerings from Dan Brown are the longest I'm aware of.
The value of cowitnessed red dot is that you get a circle (or partial w/ open ear -- my preference since sight hood doesn't perfectly center post for most common zeros) within a circle plus the post and dot which makes sight acquisition very fast and good enough at CQB distances -- you're not limited to just the dot/reticle -- the larger red dot housing circle and smaller sight hood circle (or partial open-eared brackets) and then the post plus the red dot...
There was previous discussion here in another thread about my preference for the Vortex Spitfire 1x DRT reticle if not cowitnessing w/ irons, as well as their new Strike Eagle reticles that make sight acquisition similarly fast -- but one sits too high and the other issues w/ Vz58s' ejection so neither appropriate for this platform IMO. And as someone else covered in another thread, the minimal sight offset of cowitnessing is also of value.
For a variety of reasons, my VZ58s are configured as carbines, which red dots co-witnessed are ideally suited. If I need a rifle, I'll grab one with a variable optic and a flatter shooting caliber better suited for distance.
Am curious about Mojo and MagWedge peep/ghost ring rear sights potential for my setup (particularly about crisping up the dot given astigmatism), but with lower 1/3rd see anticipate more detriment than benefit (impeding sight picture and forcing dot out of center of lens, which could also detrimentally impact POI) for majority of time when I'm using the dot, so haven't spent the money to trial. The rear CSA stock adapter w/ rail is also intriguing, but stock sits quite low (creating mechanical deficiencies that result in increased felt recoil/muzzle flip/cheek slap vs higher inline+ mount) and again not sure how it'd play w/ red dot plus loss of much of the ranging adjustment integral to stock rear sight.
Bigdude's MagWedge w/ milled and custom max-low mount reflex sight photos help illustrate such concerns here:
https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=115204.msg903902#msg903902
Edit/addition -- here's the rear CSA sight photo/more info:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/06/19/back-up-rear-sight-mounted-on-vz-58-stock-adapter/
Last -- be sure to search the forum. A lot of this has been covered previously.
