This is something we need to realize though, it's split second decisions. Sitting here, slouched on my couch, in no danger of anything but a strong breeze through the window, I can tell you'd I'd drop anything I own (even my $1500 MacBook I'm writing this on) to save my skin. But because I'm conditioned to carrying this MacBook around like a baby, because I really don't want to drop it, and because I have a well-conditioned fear of dropping this expensive piece of equipment that would surely be destroyed in a waist-high drop, (and you can replace 'Macbook' with any other small, light, expensive thing. Priceless vase maybe. But I don't own priceless vases, so I'm trying to be real). Then I might hesitate. It's not that, logically, I'd risk myself for this MacBook. But it's so built into my brain, that in a fight-or-flight situation, when my Amygdala (instinct, emotion, and fear) is secreting tremendous amounts of hormones and my pre-frontal cortex (the part that makes cognitive decisions) is shutting down (this is why fine motor skills turn to crap in a deadly force situation, btw), I might hesitate. Those ingrained reflexes will be confused. One will draw the weapon, and one will protect the MacBook. In that split second, will I instantly drop the MacBook and rack a round? Maybe. Or I might, for a split second, hesitate because hanging on to it is so 'built in'. I've never dropped it before. A socket? I drop those all the time to get it out of my way. Toilet paper? I try not to hang onto that any longer than I have to. But my laptop?
Because I try to be real about myself and how I'll react, I do think that if I were approached by some guy, maybe trying to steal my MacBook, I would hesitate to drop it 'instinctively'. Good thing I can shoot with one hand, I tend to carry things in my support hand (not 'tactically', I just do, then I can use my right hand for other things), and would have one in the pipe.
The real issue without one in the pipe though, is so many of these situations involve escalated hand-to-hand combat. Guy puts gun in your face, you use your support hand to swat the gun away while drawing your own weapon, to put it in his face. Moving your support hand back to rack the slide means the only chance you have for survival is that the bad guy didn't have one in the pipe himself. I don't like those odds.
OP; here's how I will be handling this issue. Take it FWIW. Other guys carry 1911's condition 1 with no safety. Good for them. I'm not that comfortable with doing that. So I share your concerns. I don't mind that those guys do it, it's just not for me. There's no statistics to back that up, it's perfectly safe, but it makes me nervous; and we shouldn't be nervous with our own guns. So my resolve is a DA/SA hammer fired semi-auto. I can comfortably leave one in the pipe, safety off, hammer down. Then, it just needs to be drawn and the trigger pulled. BUT, the trigger is a very heavy double-action trigger pull (plus, anything modern will have firing pin blocks and other things). Subsequent rounds are a light single action trigger pull. That's what my wife Carries (Bersa Thunder, DA/SA; and she's practices that well. She can draw and put that first round into a chest-sized target pretty stinkin' quickly at 7 yards. And the subsequent rounds just as quickly if not quicker). There's lots of them out there. Bersa makes them in .380, 9mm, .40, and .45. Compact and full size! And there's other brands too. If even that's not safe enough for you (hey, none of my business) then they still have a manual thumb safety that with practice, can be disabled rapidly while drawing. Manual thumb safety, hammer down, firing pin block- that thing is plenty safe with one in the pipe.
Personally, I'm not a fan of manual safeties though (save for perhaps some 1911's with their huge paddle). Again, fine motor skills go bye-bye in a fight or flight situation (called an 'Amygdala Hijack'). (That's not CCW experience talking, that's that Psychology education that I paid for. Guess you do learn something). There's a part of your brain, behind your eyes, that controls emotions, instinct, etc. And in cases of extreme fear, it completely takes over your brain. It knocks the parts of the brain that control rational thinking and fine motor skills out of the way. So no matter how good you think you are, in a real "I could die right here right now" situation, you are going to be clumsy, stupid, emotionally charged and fat-fingered. So be prepared for that.
