There is no reason why you can't have a very nicely visible reticle on 1x with a well thought out FFP design while maintaining precision on higher power. Given a reasonable illumination control, low light is a much easier problem to solve than bright light.
I'll give an example of the reasonable affordable Burris XTR II 1-8x24 that I happen to like. There is a 10mrad circle that disappears from view on 8x, but makes for a clear and fast aiming aid on 1x. The BDC in the center of the circle is not really visible on 1x instead looking like a good size illuminated dot in the center of illuminated circle. The illumination easily goes low enough to work beautifully in low light, but even without illumination, the circle is very visible.
In bright light, the illumination is day-visible, but not day bright. Still very usable though.
ILya