A major problem with laser fusion is getting the final optics to survive. The designs I've seen put grazing incidence mirrors at considerable distance from the target, causing the entire thing to be large, much larger than the containment building of today's PWR power plants.

https://fti.neep.wisc.edu/fti.neep.wisc.edu/aries/JUN2001/op...

Heavy ions, being charged, can be deflected by magnetic fields, so nothing need be in line of sight of the target.