I've been wearing progressives for about 10 years. I wore regular bifocals for one year before I switched to the progressives. When I first put on the progressives, I thought I was going to hurl because of the way the world distorted when I moved my head. Within a few minutes my brain had adjusted, and everything was fine.

My first progressive lenses had one small spot in which my close-up vision was corrected for reading, but the newest generation have a much wider "sweet spot". I actually had to adjust again when I got my latest glasses, but once again it only took a few minutes.

I know plenty of people who were never able to adjust to progressives. I know of no good explanation for the differences in how different people handle the lenses (beyond the obvious: "Everybody's different"). If you put on progressives and don't adjust within a day or two, I doubt that you will ever adjust to those lenses. Standard bifocals have worked fine for millions of people over a couple of hundred years. If they work for you, enjoy your corrected vision.

If you wear glasses, and if there's a certain distance you want to have between your eyes and the ground glass when you're focusing, an optometrist can get you a pair of glasses that will correct your vision at that distance. "Computer glasses" are the most common example of such lenses. I know people who have such glasses, both for computer work and for other uses, and they're all happy with the results. One friend had a pair of bifocals made with the close-up area of the lens taking up a much greater portion of the lens than is usual, for working on pottery. The larger magnified area makes it easier for her to work with her hands, and she still has the small area for distance vision at the top if she has to look up at something.

I have no problem using progressives under the dark cloth. When I'm composing I just look through whatever part of the lens makes the image clear, and when I focus I look through the lenses and through my loupe. I tried a pair of drug store reading glasses to see if they would make focusing easier (magic-bullet chasing, as was trying to fix a non-existant problem), but for me there was no difference in ease of use (except that it was annoying to switch glasses).

I admit freely that I originally bought progressives out of vanity. I quickly learned, however, that the transitional area of the lenses (between the standard prescription at the top and the reading prescription at the bottom) can be used to correct vision at distances between close-up and far away. I've become somewhat reliant on that correction. For example, when I'm under the dark cloth of my 8x10, I can get close to the glass and look through the reading part of my lenses, or I can back up as far as possible, tilt my head a tiny bit, and get a corrected view of the entire image. I find this very handy.