My bugout bag has tourniquets, chest sealers, bleed stop and wound closures (the zip-tie kind).
I only want things where it's life or death if you have it.
If I find myself needing a band-aid or tylenol or whatever I will make do.
Discussion
That's the sort of stuff going into my intermediate kit. I should add that it includes things I'd most likely use on others. Some I could on myself if conscious and able. But that brings up another valuable consideration: training family and friends.
Devil's advocate: If you are less effective at your primary mission for want of a moleskin, antidiarrheal pill, rehydration powder, etc. it could create dangerous situation.
Depends on the environment. It would probably be a waste of space in an urban environment. But certainly worth consideration if you're in a remote setting. I think of med kits as basic, intermediate, advanced, and specialty. With each kit containing everything below it. Specialty is the outlier that heavily depends on what the special case is. Like if I know I'm on a team and my duty is vascular access, airway, etc, my gear will be highly specialized for that purpose. My three levels are broad.
This is an endlessly fun topic to think about, but you can get lost in the weeds as a result.
I think of the kit I described as very basic - just the life or death stuff.
What goes in your basic kit if not that stuff? Band aids?
Basic would include things like small bandages, wraps, bacitracin, aspirin, glucometer, small gauze, a pocket ventilation mask, etc. MY basic also includes a stethoscope and manual BP cuff.
But my basic kits aren't necessarily first aid kits by design, although they do have that stuff. Basic for most people probably is just a first aid kit and that's cool.
Life or death is also kind of an arbitrary metric. You can eventually die from an infected cut that you didn't care to prep for because you didnt think it was life or death. Prevention is a key focus on my lower kits. I don't want to need more advanced care. So I do include bandages, ointments, irrigation (etc) to keep even small wounds clean in my first aid kit (included in my basic life support kit). They don't weigh much and I've seen first hand just how heavy "small" problems can become in the emergency department.
I hadn't thought of it this way (I do it naturally), but designing a kit around not needing the next level is a great way to do it. For example, a device to help remove a foreign body blocking an airway BEFORE a surgical airway is needed. Or a chest seal before you have to needle decompress in the field. You always want to have the ability to address problems while they're as small as possible. Only preparing for the most life threatening injuries could miss that and reduce your odds of survival in some cases. Like not dealing with a small lac. That could eventually require IV supplies, surgery, abx, or even higher levels of care that you may not have access to right away.
And to beat a dead horse, most people in every day life are probably more likely to experience the relatively boring stuff (cuts, choking, heart attacks, etc) vs the really action packed stuff (like GSWs, MCIs, etc).
But again, first aid is a different category for me than my life support stuff. I include it in my basic kit regardless because it's simple and requires hardly any extra space. People should have first aid covered before venturing into basic and advanced life support.