There's no doubt that many, or most, people could reduce their power by
a factor of 10 and still communicate ok. But 10 dB isn't a trivial
amount ("only 1-2 S units").

I didn't mean to imply it was "trival". I have a little 100 watt XCVR that I
use moblie and on field day that has a low power (7 watts) setting that I
sometimes use to reduce battery drain. The qso total drops, but it is not as
drastic as you would think with a 10 dB power reduction. Of course on low
power I only go back to the guys with big signals, to make that 10dB seem less
of a problem.
I guess that 10 dB loss is all relative to where it is and what would be
required to get it back.
73 Gary N4AST