I tend to think a lot of fov complaints (as in we need more) are artifacts of improper use techniques. Not all certainly, and perhaps even a minority, but I see it pretty often whatever the case.
I tend to agree with Mark (mostly anyway) in his above two posts. He cites having a familiarity with the binocular and its association with finding the bird. That familiarity is I think largely fostered by proper use technique. If you have proper technique it is second nature and yoy don't think at all about it. Whatever the fov, you can use any decent binocular to successfully go birding.
Here is an illustration of what I mean. I have seen quite a few similar examples too. A couple of days ago I went on a drive through the flooded lease grounds just north of the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge. It was a cold, almost obnoxiously bright, sunny day. Where I was, the view was to the south in the middle of the afternoon. I was taking an opportunity to get some side by side time in with some of my new binocular purchases. There was a scene every birder should have opportunity to see. The view could have been seen in similar variations in a dozen places. Just out in front were literally tens of thousands of Tundra Swans, making so much racket you could barely hear yourself think. Lots of other waterfowl, at least a dozen Bald Eagles, some Golden Eagles, scores of Hawks and Ravens. Literally scores of assorted birds in any given binocular fov.
So there I was. A van came down the access road I was on, stopped and discharged a load of primarily healthy, well heeled, active senior citizen type birders. Almost immediately I hear somebody exclaim "...hey look at all those Bald Eagles over there...". Well I was in people watching mode just then, and within a hundred feet or so of the van. So at the shout everybody was grabbing binoculars and going "...OMG where, where?..." and pretty much wildly slapping, mostly high dollar, binoculars to their eyes. I see one fellow sidestepping slowly down the edge of the road, binoculars glued to his eyes expending more energy scanning space with his new SV EL, than I think I have ever seen expended. Getting closer and closer to me all the time. Pretty soon I felt compelled to say something to avoid collision. He about fell down out of fright, he had absolutely no idea where he had gotten to. Anyway he said he was looking for those Eagles but he couldn't find them, had I seen them? I said "which ones, they are all over the place". He smiled and said "any ones will do just fine". So we started chatting for a bit. It turned out he had no idea you were not supposed to not use the binocular every second of observation during a birding outing. So I spent a few minutes with him on some basic observation techniques centered on using his eye balls first and the binocular as a follow up.
Now, as I said earlier, this is not a real common sight, but I have seen it dozens of times. This is kind of a birdwatchers mecca around here during migration and I have seen lots of people doing the exact same thing. Get out, put binoculars to eyes, and proceed to stumble around wondering why they can't see stuff. Trust me here, a common gripe is "I must need to get a binocular with a wider field of vision".
Learning proper use technique cures a lot of ills, from glaringly obvious one like I described, to amy more minor ones.
Having said that, a truly wide, bright, sharp, field is pretty neat. It is necessary only up to a point. That point will vary with different individuals.
No, I am not accusing experienced birders who like wide fov of being guilty of first degree improper binocular use technique.