It is perhaps worth mentioning that despite l@ser attacks on aircraft being measured in the thousands per year around the globe, not a single crash has resulted as a result of these incidents, nor a single life lost.
Oh that's okay then, we'll all have to put up with these idiots doing their best to distract, dazzle and blind us until someone pays with their life and then it'll become a problem.
Great.
question the decision to return to the departure airport rather than landing at the nearest available airport
Ironically it is often easier to return to your home base where you are familiar and comfortable with all procedures, approaches, taxy patterns and parking areas than it is to divert single pilot to an airfield that you are totally unfamiliar with.
What may seem 'logical' with 20/20 hindsight is often not so logical when fed with further details and facts. Unless you have experience of operating 200 tonne aircraft into unfamiliar fields you won't begin to comprehend the potential problems especially if your colleague is not up to assisting you with your approach. Go with what you know.
Typically laser dazzle incidents do not result in permanent injury but may cause temporary disruption of normal vision, disorientation, confusion and eye irritation, all effects that are seriously hazardous to flight, especially in darkness.
Surely the effects are entirely dependent upon what device is being used and it's power level? Both the US military and the Chinese Military have laser blinding weapons for anti aircraft use. I'm not saying the chav muppets are using things like that but a powerful visible spectrum laser shone into the eyes at night is a dangerous thing. Quite simply there is absolutely no excuse for it.
As for the ability to 'target' the aircraft we are normally not talking about a constant perfect bead on the aircraft. The beam usually flickers about as the fool on the other end tries to track the aircraft.