Three percent dissatisfaction and another four percent merely ‘meh’ is pretty high for an elective, perhaps even cosmetic, procedure that operates on something as fragile and irreplaceable as the eye.
I was 20/200 overall vision, and wore glasses since I was 11. At age 27, before going into law enforcement, I underwent the Lasik operation, and it was definitely a life changer.
Living near swamps, in the south, it wasnt uncommon to walk outside from an air conditioned building, and have your glasses instantly fog. My skin gets incredibly oily and the glasses would slide down my face. It was hard to find frames that didn't leave huge uncovered and distracting gaps in my peripheral vision from being too small.
In the academy, I saw plenty of guys have to deal with glasses falling off of their faces while doing pushups/working out. They'd have to evaluate "Do I want to see or do I want to not break my glasses" during defensive tactics training.
Post graduation, I can only imagine how negatively glasses would've impacted my job. Water getting on the lenses in the rain, splatter getting on them while tracking people through the woods. Sweat and condensation blocking your vision. This assumes they stay on.
Having to wrestle around with someone to get them into handcuffs is difficult enough, and its incredibly easy to get tunnel vision. Staying aware of your surroundings is important, and there would be a significant amount of due stress if you couldn't see what you were doing because your glasses got knocked into a ditch.
Also, some of the negative responses to such a survey can be avoided by proper screening of candidates and not just wanting to take the money of every person who walks in the door. For all we know, the people who responded negatively to that survey were never good candidates for lasik in the first place and are just frustrated they spent the money for little change in their vision.
This is only my own experience, but I'm quite certain that contacts are not a solution for everyone.
I had lasik when I was 30 (I think) I've been incredibly pleased with it.
But - frankly, your story is very difficult to relate to, and some of it sounds unreasonable. Oily skin cannot make glasses fall off your nose, unless they don't fit to being with; they're (supposed to be) supported by the structure of your ear and nose, not by static friction; you should have changed your frame.
Now, yes, they can fall off if you lean all the way forward; or if you throw your head around during physical activity. Or you don't want them to be at risk when playing soccer or volleyball or what-not. Well, you get prescription goggles for that; They're not that expensive.
I was really depressed and annoyed with having to wear glasses for a couple of months after I started to. Then, gradually, I forgot about them. That is, I didn't forget to wear them, I forgot about the hassle of wearing them. Yes, occasionally I get annoyed by raindrops, or a thumbprint, or having to tighten one of the screws. But it's really not as bad as you describe.
Caveat: My visual acuity without glasses is better than yours.
I've worn glasses since I was seven-years-old. They are a nuisance sometimes. But elective surgery, particularly for my eyes, makes me nervous. I don't want to take even a 1% chance of chronic eye problems to get rid of glasses.
A 1% chance of life-changing complications with something as critical as vision is, honestly, a shockingly high number for something I had assumed was far more safe.
The problem was never the surgery, it was the hype. I've regressed about 1 diopter over 15+ years, but that's better than being at 6 diopters and being almost unable to function without glasses.
In any event, taking away informed choice isn't what I want my taxes to pay the FDA to do.