I have made both sides of this argument myself in the past. The arguments seem to go:
1) civilians don’t need to shoot past 200 yards and you can do that accurately without magnification
2) yes, you can make hits out to 200 yards without magnification but the magnification is needed for target ID and/or threat assessment
3) (and this is the argument not yet made here) outside of civil unrest or societal collapse you may well have a hard time justifying shooting someone at even 50 or 100 yards, so we’re back to not *needing* that magnification again.
4) and so on
Personally, I wouldn’t mind having an LPVO on a carbine in the safe, up it wouldn’t be the one I’d necessarily keep with me after a hurricane. That said, by “old busted” still wears a TA33 and both times I’ve packed up the family and left town for the storm that poor old 6720 flattop conversion, quad-rail-handguarded, TA33-wearing (even with the burnt out tritium) old busted is the one that’s made the trip while suppressed SBR new hotness and slim-railed ultralight new-new-hotness both stay behind.
Do I think I’ll really need that limited 3x? Nope. Do I feel hamstrung by it? Nope. Do I envision a post-hurricane scenario where I might find myself happy to have it? Yep. Do I just feel way more comfortable with my nearly 20-year-old carbine with thousands of rounds through it, despite having an obsolete optic on it? You betcha.