Well I'm surprised the application hasn't been refined before now. The Germans were using diesels in a/c during WW2
From a safety aspect alone, give me a diesel any day.
Keep pumping the fuel in and the diesel will keep running. No magneto or other ignition problems to worry about. Simple, low revving diesel would be ideal.
But these are not simple diesels. Because they have opted for an automotive unit, they have had to have electronics and gearboxes and that's has been the cause many of the problems.
But we have Avgas engines because the simple diesels have disadvantages over the lycosaurs otherwise your PA-28 would have been built around a 1940's aero-diesel instead of a 1940's avgas burning lycoming.
I am sticking with my avgas burner cos it suits me and what I fly.