Laser-based illuminators top out at 0.7mW per FDA regs so while it will "work", in higher light situations (eg: partial or full moon, urban situations) you will find the illuminator quite weak. There are some use cases for the low power illuminator such as indoor with low ambient light, but you will get a decent amount of light from your laser alone, so the overlap where the laser-based IR illum is useful, but not overlapped by the IR laser, is small. It ultimately depends on your use-case. In terms of a cost justification, we just find it hard to recommend the 321G for those very specific use cases where the low power illum is useful, for double the cost of the 117IR.
LED-based illuminators don't have the power limitation, so the Vampire has 120mW of power so it's quite a bit more powerful, with extended throw also. You will find this useful for PID of anything past 50 yards.
Ultimately the best setup would be a full power IR laser with a Vampire so you have all of your bases covered (low IR laser, low IR illum to prevent wash-out, 45mW illum for those mid-range distances, then the Vampire for those really long distances), but this obviously isn't accessible for everyone, so the 117IR with Vampire is what we recommend for now. If there was a "good" combination unit like a DBAL-D2, that is ITAR-free, we would recommend that.
