I've been through 4 defensive pistol courses now with irons.

I'm getting a freaking red dot because I tried out my buddy's pistol with an RMR on it and it was easier to make deliberate shot placement.

With irons I was fine hitting the plates, but under speed drills my shots tended to be inconsistently placed. I was hitting the targets, which is the goal, but I was hitting the targets on the left side, right side, bottom, top, etc., and rarely hitting center mass. With the red dot I was able to speed up somewhat while placing far more center mass shots.

I found it weird, because with rifle irons I'm pretty freaking decent thanks to four years on the M16A2 back in my Army days. With pistol irons though, I just struggle a bit more lining them up.