I've never understood the focus on ranging with reticles. The advantages to marked reticles are primarily wind holds, hold-offs for moving targets, and holdovers for range. If you don't want or need those things, then there's no advantage to a marked reticle at all; use something very simple.
Yes, ranging with the reticle can be done. Yes, it is done. Just not often or often not successfully, at least in the hunting field, with SFP scopes. Holdovers and hold-offs are also cumbersome and not often useful in SFP scopes, if for no other reason than that a running target (coyote? Spooked antelope? Spooked or migrating elk or deer?) isn't going to wait around long enough for you to check or remember what magnification the scope is set at, make the calculation to how many mils or minutes each mark represents at that particular magnification, and _then_ check your range card, hold, and fire. Too many people either won't do that (which makes the marked SFP reticle useless), or will do it too slowly or incorrectly, resulting in a miss or no shot. Perhaps that person also would not shoot or would miss if the reticle was FFP, but the SFP reticle is a pure liability and a slow-down to the whole process.
If you also take into account the marketing images and the look and design of the scope itself, so that you know what Nikon is trying to market it as (good grief, just read the name), it is immediately apparent that the SFP reticle is a fatal flaw. I have every confidence that the scopes will be bought, perhaps very briskly, by people who fundamentally misunderstand, or are ignorant of, the value of marked reticles and matching adjustment clicks.
I don't disagree with your choice of an SFP crosshair (or German post?) for a pure hunting rifle at all. If an FFP reticle is not illuminated, or if the magnification range of the scope is relatively wider, you run a real risk of losing the reticle against many backgrounds, or of being unable to resolve the markings on the more 'busy' or detailed reticles. So, if any of those things apply, stick with very simple, SFP reticles.