It's not about walking a few extra feet, morethanpotatoprints!! It's about having wider parking spaces, to make it easier to get small children in and out of car seats, without having to worry about bashing cars next to you. It is much easier to strap your child in safely, if you aren't having to contort yourself through a 6" gap to do so.
And no, it's not essential or vital - it just makes life a bit easier. We are more than happy for other things to be made easier (either for all of us or for some of us), but the very thought that somewhere a parent's life is being made a bit easier, is total anathema to some folk.
If the only space left in the car park is a P&C space, of course no-one should expect anyone to turn round and go home without doing their shopping - but other than in that, pretty rare situation, I cannot understand what harm P&C spaces are doing to other people.
I don't use them any more - the dses are 16, 18 and 20 - and so I have to walk a bit further to the store. That doesn't harm me, or blight my life, so why should I get all hot under the collar at the parents who are getting the big spaces near the store?
Frankly, some of the arguments on here, and in other places, against P&C spaces, just sound like petty jealousy. "I can't use that special space near the shop doorway, so I don't think ANYONE should be allowed to use it!!" Green eyed monster.