As to scud running and a discussion between more experienced pilots I dont believe it is necessarily dangerous any more than some other aspects of aviation. Like so many things it requires a good understanding of the weather, the terrain, and your limits. I do agree it is important to have an escape and instrument capability is a very good escape.
I find it interesting how often scud behaves as you would expect - you can predict with a very high degree of confidence where the terrain and cloud base will close up, you can predict the direction from which the weather will close in and, more importantly, the direction from which it will open up, you can predict what is likely to come out of the scud so avoiding those golf ball hail storms but you can only do so by being very familiar with the topography and the weather on the day. There is no substitute for a careful self brief. the consequence of that self brief maybe that there is an unpredictable element (what might fall from the cloud base for example) and that in itself might be enough to change to plan B.
We tend to think of scud running as being risky, dangerous, to be avoided at all cost - but one man's scud is another man's good overcast. I recall thinking twice about even departing with a solid overcast of less than 2,000 feet.
So it is a skill, a skill to be honed, to be kept current, at times a very useful skill and lest we forget a technique that many pilot's have used very safely for a very long time perhaps because whatever their capabilities they chose to fly an aircraft with no instrument capability.
Use the skill unwisely and just like the unskilled aerobatic pilot it is quite capable of ruining your day.