shouldn't recognition of intimidation in a situation be part of a PO's general awareness?
Yes I agree with that. I've always been a pretty good judge of people. I could always tell what suspects needed to be cuffed and which didn't. Though it was a violation of department policy, there was many times I didn't cuff suspects when I took them in. In my 20 years that never came back to bite me. You learn which people will respond to kind words and which you need to take without even speaking, but that's a different topic.
Regarding cops, handguns and holsters. You'd be surprised how much speed matters. In my training sessions one of the things I demonstrated was, if you have your gun pointed at a target, ready to shoot, another guy (cop or bandit) can draw and fire before the one holding the gun can get a shot off.
This is easy to demonstrate (without pointing guns at people). Get two targets set up about 7 yards in front of two shooters.
One has the gun pointed at the target, the second guy has the gun in the holster. As soon as the first guy sees the second guy start to draw, he fires.
You'd really be surprised, most of the time the guy who draws will get the shot off first. I taught my officers to "assume everyone is armed", "be ready" and as Bill Jordon in his book said, "do most of your practice drawing and firing one round".
Another thing about Jordon's book. he mentioned most LE holsters have a safety strap. Officers had a tendency to leave it strapped until they think they might have to draw. He says do it the other way. If you were to enter a bar room fight, then snap it. You have more time to snap the holster wading into a brawl, then you do to unsnap it if someone pulls a gun on you.
The speed of which a shooter draws is not limited to muscle movement (grabbing the gun, pulling it out, and firing at the target) but the minds ability to recognize the threat and take action. Once the hand it told to take action, it takes a spit second. It takes a good deal longer period for the hand to get that message from the brain.
I contend that cops keep or put their hands on the gun not as a means to intimate people but simply "officer safety".