Well as an avid brake user that has just gone brakeless within the past week I'm going to have to say its really not as big a deal as you might think. I realized how little I actually have to stop. Yeah theres lots of slowing down that you have to do whilest cycling but actually having to stop really quickly just doesn't happen. Now when I rode with a brake I used it for everything and honestly thought that there was no way I could ride safely without one, then I went a few days out of necessity without a brake and realized that its not less safe than riding with a brake.

Believe it or not I can stop just as fast as someone properly braking without the prospect of panic braking and flipping over my bars. I think its unfair to relate riding brakeless to riding without a helmet or riding in a car without a seatbelt. Perhaps riding brakeless is more dangerous than riding with a brake but its not THAT much more dangerous, you guys are acting like we have no means to stop.

Oh and I've had my lockring unthread on me going down a really steep hill and I'm alive to tell the story. Once again, not that big a deal, all I did was not panic and put my foot down, and ta dah! I stopped.