I agree with the grip safety. I carry an XD Subcompact regularly and have had a failure to fire...once...when I first used it... because it was the first gun I shot and I wasn't gripping properly.Why then did the US Army stipulate a manual thumb safety on their selected contract pistol? (Sig P320)
I have striker pistols w/o a thumb safety (XDs) and have put quite a few rounds through them, but I still favor a thumb safety.
The grip safety on the XD will prevent things like the above sweatshirt drawstring accident. I shoot 1911s a lot too, and I don't think the 1911 grip safety is a "far better" design than the XD gs. I have never had a failure to engage the gs on XDs but have had it happen with 1911s with a full grip on pistols with no beavertail hump. And I'm not the only one that this has happened to.
Also, I don't see how the gs on the XD can prevent the gun from firing when you want it to fire. This simply has never happened to me with an XD but it has with some 1911s.
I actually like the grip safety a lot because it's automatically disengaged when you need it to be, but it protects against user error (at least, can) when holstering.
I have accidentally engaged the thumb safety on M&P models before, until I started resting my thumb across the safety.
If I had a thumb safety on a pistol, I probably would engaged when holstering but then carry disengaged.