My problem with a red dot optical sight is my eyes’ astigmatism, which causes dots to flare. This results in less-than-desirable accuracy potential. My latest eyeglasses offer some small amount of improvement. Really, a red dot optic is most helpful when I am not wearing my eyeglasses at all, and so would be unable to aim effectively with iron sights, in which case the illumibnated dot provides some amount of useful visual reference. Astigmatism, in my case, actually causes many different small, bright, round dots to flare, even some white painted dots, that were popular on iron sights for a while, and fiber optic inserts.
The Trijicon RMR, with the tritium-“powered” green triangle, works much better than a dot for me, but only in specific lighting conditions, so, it is at its best as a supplemental sight on a long gun.
The best handgun optic set-up, for my eyes, that I have found, thus far, is an Aimpoint ACRO, with the back-up rear irons in front of the optic. I have such a slide, for the Glock G45, which I can use on my G19x. The name of the company that milled the slide escapes me, at the moment, but it is/was one of the very best, doing that work, at the time. Do I actually dress around this mailbox-atop-a-blocky-Glock? Well, no. The rear of a Glock slide is already difficult to dress-around, because that is the part that is mostly likely to bulge against the drape of whatever cover garment I am wearing. Unless it is raincoat weather, this is an open-carry proposition, or, at best, mere “casual concealment.” (The slightly shorter grip of a G19 would NOT solve mitigate the concealment problem, because I have no trouble concealing the grip of the full-duty-sized weapon. Plus, shorter-gripped pistols have starting really aggravating my right hand/wrist arthritis.)
So, an optic, on a handgun, has its place, in my world, but not really on my daily defensive concealed carry weapon. In some conditions, I would want an optic on an “offensive pistol.” (Sometimes, especially when defending family members, or people in our care, we must move to contact.)
I retired from big-city LEO-ing six years ago, so, have never had an opportunity to sit, fully-geared-up with a red-dot-optic duty pistol, inside one of those infernal Ford Explorer-based coffins that were labeled “Police Interceptor,” so, cannot say whether I would want to use a red dot optic, in that environment. I wonder whether there would be enough space between the optic and the mobile computer terminal, while seated on the driver’s side, to avoid the feeling that I was wedged into a sardine can. (I wore the same 34” duty belt size, my entire career, so, being a “big guy” was not the problem.) A fraction of an inch can make a difference; when I rode on the passenger side of the newer Fords, in those final months of my career, I carried a G19 in my duty holster, rather than a G17, because the right seat bolster would tend to resist my effort to bail-out in the hurry, when wearing a G17. Crown Vics, and especially the police package Tahoe, were nicely roomy; one of the several things that drove me to retire, when I did, was having to start using the compact SUV-ish Fords in 2017.
I was not allowed to use an optic-equipped handgun, during my policing career, (sworn in early 1984; retired in early 2018) though I heard, a year or so after I retired, that the new hires were being started, in the academy, with RMR-equipped G17 duty pistols. (RM06, IIRC.) Presumably, as was the case when Weapon-Mounted-Lights were finally, eventually approved, it would be possible for line officers to attend a certification class to become authorized to use RMR-equipped duty pistols. Personally, an RM06 not being my eyes’ cup of tea, I would not have transitioned.
Edited to add: Conceptually, I am not opposed to optics on handguns, in case that was not clearly stated. It is a matter of my eyes’ compatibility with most of the available illuminated dots that I have tried. Plus, my eyes “want” big windows. An Aimpoint Micro, for example, would be an even better dot than the ACRO, for me, but that would relegate the weapon to “bag gun” carry.