5 yards sneaks up faster than one may think. The distance from the top of a flight of stairs to the bottom is bumping up against it, for instance. Likewise the length of the hallway in a ranch, or one end of the living room to another.

Not that you are wrong, but someone would do well to measure out some of the likely distances in their home. Distance from your bedside to the bedroom door, from the bedroom door to the longest line of sight point towards an entrance, front door to wherever you would want to be standing if someone was breaking in through the door, etc. Even at pretty moderate ranges bird shot stops being able to crack ribs, especially if it is heavy winter coat season. So if the linear distance from the landing outside your bedroom door to the front door is 15-20 feet, something with heavier individual projectiles (buck shot) or higher speed (AR) might be a good plan.

I do wonder how much it matters across states what you shoot the person with. Like, if you shoot an intruder with bird shot will the legal system take it a being less likely you intended to kill? Or are you better off killing with something more solid if you have to shoot at all so that there is only one story coming out? Almost certainly something to check local laws about, as like you say, nothing good happens after you have to shoot someone and the situation is dealt with, and it is important to minimize the aftershocks.