Can't argue with your views BPF, you're vastly more experienced than me but I can only speak for myself when I say that I never had any trouble with PFL's and I can't say that the thought of a donk failure bothers me too much. Of course I'd rather not have one but I would hope I would be fairly comfortable if I did have one.
I always fly like I'm expecting one at any rate, so I always keep a weather eye out for a landing spot and never fly over big swathes of city type area.