PA,
I got my NVG experience in a dark corner of the world....that is well known for Haze. We used them for all Night Operations from one skid roof top landings to cruising around snooping on folks with FLIR and ordinary Vanilla Night Flying.
I have landed in amongst the Piney Woods to unlit, unprepared, natural clearings during nights with overcasts and minimal celestrial lighting....using no external lights of any kind (the worst possible situation). At a hover....with the naked eye....one could not make out the ground or trees...but we could operate quite safely on the NVG's.
NVG's are worth the investment for any....any.....Night Flying. Add a IR Filter to your Night Sun and it gets even better. Spotting Light sources with NVG's is amazing. We watched the strobes of Airliners from well over two hundred miles away. Flashlights shine like Beacons.
NVG's have their limitations....but I will gladly accept 20/40 vision with a 40 degree arc of view over being nearly blind at night.....anytime!
You keep you head and eyes moving and it is simply amazing how much you can see....what you can see.... that you cannot and will not see without the NVG's.
Add them to a fully IFR Aircraft and Crew and that is as safe as you can get equipment wise. That would allow ORNGE to return to doing what they did before the recent change and do so safely.