I can give you my opinion. I own a Ruger Mk. II with a red dot, I think it is a Tasco Pro-Point. I own a S&W 686 with a 4x Leupold scope on it. I have shot and owned a couple other handguns with scopes.
The optical sights that I have used seem like the dot is very large. For me, it makes accurate plinking difficult because a small target will be covered completely by the dot. Shooting at bullseyes on paper isn't a problem because you can center the dot in the scoring rings. I realize that there are different size dots out there, so you may be able to improve upon what I have. I also realize that a larger dot is easier to pick up and allows faster shooting which is fine on a race gun where I am only trying to quickly place my shots in the A zone of a silhouette. However on a .22, the dot is too large for me. If for example, I want to shoot a golf ball sitting 25 yards away, I don't want the dot to appear to be the size of a basketball at that distance so that the golf ball is lost somewhere under that red dot that is 10 times the size of my intended target.
I would prefer a standard scope. That being said, my opinion is that 4x is too much magnification for me. As you know, magnification, magnifies every little movement of the gun. Most of us are not rock steady when shooting a handgun, and the scope only makes this problem worse. At 4x the gun seems to be waving like a conductors baton. I have extreme difficulty trying to shoot off hand with a 4x scope. I even have some trouble using it off the bench. I am sure that a lot of practice will make a difference, but if I were doing it again, I would go with a 2x.
Here is a website that has some good information on sights.
http://www.bullseyepistol.com/
