I've posted this before. I have Shimano's A530s and after a break-in period they started hanging a consistent way, - mostly vertical with the clipless mechanism facing towards the back. They are tipped slightly forward. This makes it pretty easy to get the desired side most of the time with practice. In fact, most of the summer I've been commuting in my running shoes and even though the platform side is probably slightly harder to hit consistently, I don't have much trouble.

It is all about trade-offs. You can get a very walkable, almost runnable SPD shoe if you're OK with sacrificing stiffness. But stiffness is an advantage while riding which is why you see a lot of cycling shoe advertising emphasizing stiffness.

I had some very flexible SPD shoes that I liked a lot but I just plain wore them out. As a birthday present, my wife said she'd get me another pair of cycling shoes. All I had to do was pick them out. That was back in July. I still haven't done it out of laziness. Frankly, even though I have a preference for SPDs, my sneakers are good enough for commuting and I have a pair of road shoes for longer rides.

If someone were to ask me if they should invest in clipless shoes and pedals, I don't know that I would recommend them just for commuting short to moderate distances. I already have them because I found them really helpful on my longer rides and I gained a preference for riding clipped all the time. But it wasn't *that* strong of a preference and not much of of loss on my commute to go without. But, sooner or later I'll pick out another pair of cycling shoes and I will be commuting with them again.