I read some of the posts last night and, went to bed depressed. Well meaning I'm sure, but somewhat alarmist.

All I can share with you is what I did. I use SPD's set to one notch above minimum tension. I've NEVER had a problem unclipping. I've NEVER had a problem slipping out of the pedals and that includes hitting logs with my cranks on MTB single track. The ONLY time I fell when road biking (not mountain biking) was when I tried to use a SPD cleat in a Wellgo pedal. Yeah, that was dumb. But I do have way more confidence when I stand on the road or trail and I firmly believe clipless are much safer than flats or cages.

DG, please move forward with your quest to go clipless and buy the pedals that YOU like that YOU think will work for you.