Because the dollar store readers are not made to correct hyperopia (“farsightedness”); they

are made to correct presbyopia (the loss of focusing flexibility that hits all of us in our early
40s). Presbyopia occurs in all of us in a relatively equal way, so making a standardized power
for presbyopia is easy.

Basically, the cheater readers are making the assumption that the wearer has perfect
distance vision, and simply brings the focal point forward to a comfortable reading distance.

Now, plus power lenses that correct for presbyopia also happen to help with hyperopia.
However, unless your hyperopia just coincidentally happens to be equal between your eyes,
free of astigmatism, and of a small enough amount, the readers are only partially correcting
it. It may be better than nothing, or even good enough for practical use in many cases, but
they do not usually fully or adequately correct the hyperope’s vision.

As far as myopia (“nearsightedness”) goes, its generally too unique to the individual to
standardize in a “drug store reader” kind of way. Plus if people are self-diagnosing/correcting
myopia, they almost always tend to overcorrect it, making them prone to eyestrain,
headaches, and if they are young enough, a worsening of their prescription. In fact a huge
part of the refraction procedure (“one or two?”) is making sure the patient hasn’t
overcorrected themselves.

A friend got lasik and the doc used something that basically did all the 1 or 2 stuff automatically, and apparently

you can get the same without lasik by getting an exam for high definition lenses. I'm pretty sure this Wavefront

thing is it: https://www.allaboutvision.com/eye-exam/wavefront.htm

Wavefront technology developed for custom LASIK may soon be used routinely by eye doctors to better

diagnose vision problems in eye exams, perhaps making the familiar eye chart obsolete.

Most people have had eye exams with a device called a phoropter, which contains many lenses of different

powers. An ophthalmologist or optometrist changes the lenses in front of your eyes, asking which lens produces

the best image.

With this conventional approach, information you give the eye doctor is very subjective, based more on what

you think you see instead of what you actually see. But a wavefront measurement is objective, because vision

errors can be identified automatically by the way light waves travel through the eye.

Someday, these detailed wavefront measurements may replace conventional eyeglass or contact lens

prescriptions, which describe vision problems only in terms of the eye's nearsightedness, farsightedness and

astigmatism.

Just as custom (or "wavefront-guided") LASIK has the potential for producing sharper vision than conventional

LASIK, glasses and contact lenses made with this advanced technology may also produce better visual clarity

than their conventional counterparts.