As someone who's spent time on the ground, both humping packs, and doing more sophisticated work, I can tell you a couple of things about what soldiers value. The lower down the food chain you are, the more you value simplicity, reliability, and ease of use.
If you're a ground pounder, you don't want expensive, fragile gadgets that require lots of maintenance and extra battery packs, things that distract you or dull your senses. I had to carry a large expensive camera system for a time, and it was not only a PITA, but it constantly was down from sand in the bearings, battery packs not charging right because the contacts were dirty or corroded. And even when it was working right, the setup and teardown times made it almost unusable. The wear and tear on it was insane, it was constantly out if calibration.
That being said, the higher up the decision making process you go, the more useful tools like that are. If you're a combat controller or working out of a base, some tech like that can be really handy. But don't try to load Joe Average down with that mess, cause he'll break your toys, then yell at you that all he needed in order to make a combat plan was a stick and some sand.
The rest of your anecdote was really interesting, thanks for sharing!