I am beginning to believe this is indeed the case. I may end up taking off my heavy rear mount base, or putting on a skeletonized one. Keep it light and simple.
But MAYBE a 2X prism would work well and help my old eyes.
For the lightest possible self-defense rifle WITH rule-of-law (what I think you're referencing), I don't know that there's much benefit to 2x vs 1x AND you lose the use of iron sights w/ any prism optic above and beyond the fact that you can't cowitness them on the Vz58 anyways. If you have vision issues or want to show off precision shooting (especially if astigmatism turns red dots blurry and substantially increase MOA) or want to ensure optimal shot placement for humane hunting, then yes, there's a benefit to magnified optics.
I have astigmatism and exclusively run Vortex Spitfire 1x prisms on my home defense ARs for myself and my wife. Detailed in another thread that I think it's a really fast reticle and superior to single dot of a red dot, despite substantial addition of weight.
Something else to mention is that antireflective devices are invisible on most prism optics due to light reflection. On red dots, you see that honeycomb. Other ARs have LPVOs, mid-power variables, and red dots for need/use case.
With LPVOs your 1-4s and 1-8s run about the same weight, so I spend the little extra for that add'l magnification. I also don't think the 1-4s are worth the weight given alternative higher magnification options -- different story 5 years ago when very few optics beyond 4x could offer a true 1 power. And also why I question whether low mag prisms are superior -- even the Marine Corps is ditching ACOGs for a 1-8x LPVO from Trijicon.
Also worth mentioning:
In real life with rule-of-law, if you're using your scope to survey and point your rifle at a cop or anyone else who is armed even if just glassing, you're likely to get shot.
This year or last there was also that incident of someone in a truck bed w/ a scoped rifle and w/ protesters of some sort, who got arrested and jailed for pointing his rifle at them while looking through the scope and IIRC claimed he was just wanting to look at a potential threat more closely.
Regardless, my point is that 8x or 10x binocs or just as an important part of your kit as weapon's optics. Unless you have some stabilization mechanism, anything beyond 8 to 10x in binocs gets pretty bouncy.
In sum: EVERYTHING is a trade-off. There's no perfection, and there's always limitations. And everyone's needs and use cases are different. Do what works for you and your needs and limitations. The goal is to maximize your performance while using your tool in your use cases.
