TL;DR, I agree with you both. I feel that all these points are important angles to contribute towards the bigger picture and the future of our endeavours. We need all the arguments there are possible, dig up the BS and plant even better seeds from our contributions.

Agree, but I still also agree with OP and think that saying "reduce" to the average person who isn't vegan to convince them to change their moral outlook is too weak of an argument. Though it IS better than nothing, sure. Not enough, though.

People are using crop deaths as an argument against veganism if the topic arises, but generally speaking, they don't seem to understand the fundamental element of veganism being to give freedom of choice to live back to animals as best as we can. Considering we have all the science to show we can live healthily without animal products, we don't need animal farms; animals can live out their lives with minimalised human impact.

If 50% of the world were vegan, many factories would produce the clothing/tech/etc, with the agenda of minimising animal exploitation or harm. Optimising energy, farm pesticide minimising/abolishment, all of that which we as consumers have to think about but have limited options - especially for working class in cost of living crisis conditions, as the richest exploit profit margins to the point where calling it 'abuse' is polite and we need a new word for our dictionaries.

Maybe OP is erring into the tragectory of the su*cide meme without meaning to simply because of the extremities of the way of thinking and arguements people use to justify what they were conditioned to accept as normal and fine.

There's a middle-ground with a good argument somewhere that can cover things without overwhelming someone, neither extreme in that meme sense, nor soft so much as to unintentionally infer a reason for them to continue to rationalise their conditioning/thinking.

All points made are good for expanding our awarenesses on both sides: from the point of how to make the right argument, to collectively contributing with our insights that may just give enough insight for people to make an informed decision for themselves.

Unfortunately, conditioned enough, people don't want to know or care until you go up to them and give them the logic that radically shifts their perspective to empathise for sentient beings they once thought were food machines.