[Dave S.]

I live in Colorado where they use stones to melt the snow in the winter. This leaves fine gravel on the roads all year long. It can be normal out here to replace your windshield every year on a daily driver, and about every 5-10 years on a car used only on summer weekends. I have glass replacement with zero deductable on all my cars and use it when I get a chip that leads to a crack.
Insurance won't replace it from sandblasting over time, so when it gets really bad, you hope for a crack so you can get it replaced. In extreme cases where the windshield gets hard to see through when looking into the sun, you might just have to help that process along a bit.