I always saw index as the tool that gets you visual confirmation faster rather than a competitor or replacement to it.
Yes. This ^^^^
I guess the exception would be something like a 0.8 draw where you are reacting to your index prior to visual confirmation, but for anything else (a 1.2 draw and hit, very fast and accurate transitions) index and visual confirmation are good friends...
No. Everyone has different skills and abilities. Those metrics may be true for yourself, (not a critique as most can't do that) but not for everyone. I shoot with some folks who, through a combination of talent and hard work, can get sub second hits in the .7 or .8 range with visual confirmation with reasonable consistency say 90% of the time. There are two aspects to this: 1) people who "see faster" even in other disciplines like racing, sporting clays or who have the potential hit a major league fastball etc; and 2) learning to accept less visual confirmation. There definitely times when dialing that back is advantageous but that's often more about wanting a durable and consistent grip vs an inability to get visual confirmation.This ^^^^^When Ben talks about index he is not talking about point shooting. When practical shooting competitors say "index" they mean what tactical shooters call "natural point of aim" (which is a misnomer, all the time it is far from natural and needs to be trained to exist in the first place).
He's talking about training an "index" to the point where if you look somewhere and you point the gun there the sights show up there, and you're not hunting for the dot/aligning irons. He's not talking about shooting without a sight picture.