Awareness of what's going on inside your vehicle is also of some importance.

When you have a kid, they try to choke on their own fingers/toys/food, throw their drink/toys, or just generally be annoying.

While that is correct, removing the ability to easily look at what is going on in rear seat will make some people uneasy.

As a parent, it is in my experience much safer to be able to flip the rear view mirror into "night mode" and have a view of what the kids are arguing about than to have to turn back even momentarily to interact with them.