I have both types & it matters not to me which I might carry, since as was said above, basically use your head & keep your finger off the trigger until you are going to fire.
To be honest, I think it is better for most inexperienced folks to have a thumb safety, simply because of their not using their heads & more than a few inexperienced folks don't seem to keep their fingers out of the trigger guard.
While I have both types, I train to use a thumb safety even if I don't have the safety set to safe, or even if the one doesn't have one to begin with. Simply because I want it to be a natural thing to make sure IF there is a safety, that it is OFF when I go to fire.
No safety, no big deal, since I have already made the movement with my thumb whether it is there or not, and it is in milliseconds. Not a long time. Basically unconsciously & no thinking involved. "Instinctively", one might say. It takes a bit of training to do it.
So, if one does not train to take the safety off & there is a thumb safety and I don't take it off, then it may slow me down even in milliseconds and when time is of the essence, I don't want to slow down.
I don't know if I am explaining it well enough, but with good training, making your process of going from holster, or non shooting "stance" to shooting should be made into an "instinct" like act & not something you need to think about.
Thus, getting used to a thumb safety might be a prudent thing to practice, even if you don't carry one with a thumb safety. You may not have your own firearm for some reason, it may have malfunctioned to a point where it is unusable, or something along those lines & you don't have the time to repair.
Sidetrack...The uniformity of agencies & the military, etc. all using the same firearms is not just for logistics, it is also so that you can take a partners or buddies firearm & keep going if you have to do it.
If you are carrying one type of firearm & someone is carrying a different one & you are not familiar with each others firearm, if there is ever a situation where your firearm is not working right & you end up needing to use the others, or vice versa, a delay in un-familiarity could be a matter of serious bodily injury or death.
While if you are using the same type firearm, then it is easy to use the others piece as if it were your own. So, if you are using a non thumb safety & the buddy is using one with the safety, in the heat of a dangerous situation, the one not used to using a thumb safety & thus not thinking about taking the thumb safety off could cause a delay, and that delay could be a bad deal.
As well, just having the familiarity with ones firearm that one is using, is important also & that is another thing that inexperienced shooters have to deal with. Most don't really know the firearm well enough since they have not taken the time to know it.
Last thing one would want in a split second situation is to not know what you are doing due to not knowing the mechanics of the firearm when ya really would need it.
I could go on, but I likely have said enough.
Most folks here are well familiar with firearms & particularly their own firearms, so with your experience you can make good choices & decisions about whether you want one with or without, but I am thinking that the average Joe or Jane who has not even had a firearms safety class, ought to be getting a a firearm with a thumb safety until they have the experience to carry one without a thumb safety.
YMMV, of course. but that is my opinion. Hope it is understandable in the way I tried to put it across.
