

Most nearsighted presbyopes can read without their glasses. Presbyopia isn’t losing the ability to see up close, it’s losing the ability to change your focal length. The point of a bifocal or progressive is so you don’t have to put on and take off your glasses to see things. You just wear them and can see everywhere.
It’s not that optical pros are idiots, it’s that there are so few of them you’ll likely never meet one, and only a true professional can tell they’re full of shit. I can give advice if you’d like. I may be a rando saying Trust Me, but you’re not one of my patients, and we’ll never meet, so I have no reason to mislead.