I tend to agree that shooting with the scope has made it much easier for both the newbie as well as keeping those of us past 45 in the game.
Newbies tend to show up with no background of irons in their childhood, so getting them to understand front sight focus is bypassed with the scope.
The middle aged and older cannot get the same close focus as we develop presbyopia and the scope helps with eye fatigue and keeps the target sharp at the same time.
Now, putting numbers on how much score improvement this makes is guesswork, but I tend to agree it is worth at least several points.
I know nobody wanted to hear it at the time but I still would have suggested creating a division for the scopes and keeping the irons separate, but I also supported the idea of keeping more folks in the game as being an overriding issue.
My sentiments were based on the concept we are all agreeing with, which is the iron sights were more challenging and the folks who ran them to DR deserved credit for doing it the hard way.
When they allowed optics on Highpower Palma, they don't compete in the same class as the irons.
By that same token, they never gave the credit due to those who ran the Garand versus, M14, versus, AR, so I don't push the concept of keeping irons and optics divisions any more either. That ship sailed.... Carry on.