Well, I absolutely hate loosing crippled birds. Seems to me it would be better to kill a bird cleanly with 1 1/4 ounce of shot than to cripple one with 7/8 or 1 ounce. Not that 7/8 can't do the job and I have never used 1 1/4 myself.
But I have never quail hunted in those high falutin circles and I know that is the tradition in some places.