My brother bought a S&W .380 bodyguard with the laser sight on it for his wife. He brought it by my house, I have a range out back since I live in the boonies and we shot it. At one point I asked him about why he paid extra for the laser when Ruger, Keltec and Taurus had similar models? Because of the laser sight built in.
I said I see, but I have a question: if you or her were carrying and suddenly attacked would you have time to actually turn on the laser sight? His response, probably not. Then I suggest you train shooting it without the laser.
I told him that if he knew the attack was coming then the activation and use of the laser sight might be useful, otherwise train with the old fashioned sights.
Personally I carry the Keltec PF9 and the only modification I would make would be night sights which I would think would be more valuable.
You gave your brother some very sound advice. Lasers have their place but point shooting is not one of them IMHO. I say this because if you get used to looking at the dot first, it’s probably going to be too late.
You probably know this, but learning how to point shoot at varying distances is a lot of fun. And if you have the room to do it like your brother has (and can do it safely, of course), you can incorporate the other big part of defensive shooting, Move, don’t stay put!!
99.9% of the time in an emergency self defense situation, the defender will not have the time to take aim with sites or laser.