More to it than that. A scope gathers light in dim conditions, allows the use of 1 aiming reference point instead of 2 and there are no batteries or switches needing to be pushed. It's dead simple. My eyes are fine with a peep and blade or bead, but a low powered scope still works...easier I guess is the word.
Try one, you'll probably understand what I mean. And most 1x scopes are more than 1x, something like 1.3 or so. Not much magnification, but you need a small amount I've read or it ends up looking like the target is smaller than it actually is.
I am 100% on board with ALL of that and pretty obsessive about not being reliant on batteries, especially ones I can't recharge and "coin-cells" or "button-cells". NO alkaline batteries in MY house or MY shop, so if I DO have to use batteries, they have to be NiMh or lithium, so that narrows things pretty seriously.
HOWEVER,......
Battery life on some red dots is in the 50,000 hours. Some even have shake awake features and can be left on all the time. Red dots also work better in low light. So yes, red dots at no magnification are a better choice for most hunting situations requiring zero magnification. FWIW, I recommend one with the smallest dot, preferably 1MOA, 2 MOA at the most. Anything bigger, starts to cover up too much of the target for accurate shot placement beyond 40 yards. Sig Romeo 5 fits most of this criteria and is very affordable.
If I hadn't used what cash I had left on a Taurus 605 revolver recently, I'd have had that very red dot, in fact, I had it in my cart. The price was very low, the dot was 2 MOA (hard to find anything that small or smaller for that kind of money), the battery life, "shake-awake" feature and overall compact size of the Romeo5 and it fits onto a Weaver base had me sold.
THIS very red dot changed my mind for all the reasons you mention above. I'll have to wait. When Taurus (of which I am not really a huge fan) advertised a stainless, 3", 5-shot 357 with decent fixed sights, I just HAD to give it a try, and there went what was left from the last installment of my "purge" at the last gun show. In October, there's another show, and maybe I'll finally move the last two (and a half) rifles and a bunch of related components tying up capital.
First thing on my list when I have cash again is THAT red dot.
I won't be selling off the scope it "replaces" though, because as made clear in this thread - the "right" scope is just too hard to find these days. I'll save those for backups.