I'll chime in. I hunt East Texas and West Texas. The XQ50 does not have too narrow a FOV unless your hunting from 30 yards in IMO. Well worth the extra money for distance shots as you pointed out yourself. I get plenty of those out west but more than my fair share of 300+ shots in East Texas on all the hay meadows, which the hogs love.
Fair enough, I think it's just a real matter of different strokes for different folks. I just hunt hogs differently and I personally won't take a shot over 150 unless there was some reason I really had to. I'm not saying someone else shouldn't, I just know my own abilities. On my own place I can see 450 yards and I spot hogs that far away but I walk up on them. Last year I never took my first shot on a hog on any place I hunted at over 80 yards and we spotted them as far as 600 yards away. But at the same time, I'll admit I love getting up close and personal and I get crazy close on some occasions when I could have taken the shot at 100 yards. It's just a different way of hunting and these East Texas conditions usually make it very easy to get close to hogs.
I also want to clear something up since I had someone else ask me if I liked the XQ38 because I get some sort of deal on it. As a dealer, I make more $ on the XQ50 vs the XQ38 and the demand for 50's is much less than what it is for 38's so there is no question, from a financial and availability stand point I'd much rather sell a 50 than a 38 but I don't let those things sway my recommendations. And if someone wants a 50....be my guest, I'd love to sell you one!
At the end of the day, thankfully we have lot of choices on what thermal magnification to buy. If you like magnification, FLIR is coming out soon with their PTS536 that will be 4x and the PTS736 that will be 7x, so the more the merrier. There is something for everyone!