For me, the jury is still out on thermal vermin shooting, particularly in difficult ground where there's long grass, hedges, trees etc. that give variable thermal signatures. Absolutely no question on thermal spotting - a no brainer - but good NV gives you the SIGHT picture you need to assess the target and fore (and back) ground properly IMHO.
I have shot with thermal, but I prefer to shoot with good NV.
There's no argument that thermal scopes are not the perfect solution in every circumstance, and personal preference also comes into it.
I have no experience of tubed NV, but with digital NV such as the Drone Pro, Yukon Photon, Pulsar N870 etc, one of the biggest problems is the reflection from grass and other organic material which can often cause the camera to "white out)
A little anecdote: I was out the other evening. I watched a fox slide down a field, full of sheep. I thought I knew where it was going, so I moved maybe 40m to a good shooting spot. Got there - wide open field - no fox. Watched and watched - nothing - but a bunny bobbing around caught my attention to the extent I wanted to know what it was doing. NV on. laser on.......it was the fox. It was sat effectively behind a dead sheep, getting a good nosh from the belly - lifting it's head occasionally, which is what I was seeing. It was a dead fox the next time it lifted it's head. There is no way I would have been able to correctly identify that (although with this experience I may look differently in future) as the dead sheep had no obvious heat signature in thermal, but the eyes and definition in NV made it a very clear and obvious shot.