I think some are so concerned about lawyers that they may not be able to shoot when/if required.
The point is that you can be concerned about lawyers and still put yourself in a situation where you don't have to worry about shooting when required. All you have to do is make some common sense decisions.
I say use what you believe gives you the best chance for survival and to win.
I agree. I just don't believe that my "best chance for survival" involves a handgun that's been customized to the point that it could legitimately become a problem in court. In fact, I earlier pointed out that the main reason my self-defense guns are pretty close to factory configuration is for reliability/function.
If you cannot carry without worrying about the lawyers then don't carry.
I worry about lawyers BEFORE I carry and then I don't have to worry about them while I carry. More to the point, I believe the decisions I've made as a result of considering the issue carefully will keep me from having to worry after a shooting. I won't have to "let the chips fall where they may", I've stacked the deck in my favor.
I guess, for me, is that there is no trial law examples to call this "reality".
Well, first of all, let me commend you on your research into trial law examples. That's a good approach to making a careful decision.
That said, I don't think your research has been adequate. If it were, you would have found a fairly high-profile case in FL involving a police officer named Luis Alvarez where the prosecutor tried to make a case against the officer in an attempt to prove that the shooting was accidental instead of justified. In that case, the prosecutor tried to make an issue of grips that were not departmental issue (custom grips, if you will) and a lightened trigger return spring.
...especially when it has never happened.
This is problematic 2 ways. The fact that something has never happened doesn't mean it can't happen. After all, every legal precedent is a result of a "first time". If things could never happen simply because they've never happened before, we wouldn't have nuclear weapons, firearms, airplanes, the list goes on.
Second, it doesn't appear you've exerted even a minimal effort in making your determination that "it has never happened". I did an internet search using the terms 'modified' 'gun' 'court' 'case' and the fourth link returned referred to two different cases involving modified guns. One a criminal case where the defendant eventually prevailed though it cost him "heavily" in lawyer fees and a second where a homeowner lost his civil case over shooting an intruder with a modified 10/22 and had to pay a judgement to the criminal.