So my chain is worn in safe areas almost exclusively and hidden on most of those rare occassions that put me in a bad area.
You seem to be missing the point that I and others are trying to make. By your own admission you realize the chain attracts bad guys. Therefore why wear it around bad guys, period? That is the point---it is not particularly smart to do things that you know will make your life more dangerous without any reason. By your own admission this place was so bad you put your son on lookout detail to watch for bad guys, but then you hung around for another 30 minutes. You left expensive chains visible on both you and your son instead of putting them out of sight. This does not strike me as a particularly good response. If you think hanging around in an area that you have identified as problematic, wearing bad guy attractant, with an 11 year old child in tow is a good thing, go for it, but I'm going to call it as not such a good idea.
Appropriate by your standards may be different than mine or others.
But "appropriate and reasonably safe" which was the whole concept, not just a piece of it, should not differ that much from person to person.
You guys get stuck on the idea of wearing an expensive piece of jewelry fishing as not being appropriate.
I can't speak for everyone, but I think what us guys are stuck on is the idea that you would do something to attract the bad guys when it is not necessary. Personally I don't find a $3000 piece of jewelry to be all that expensive, but I still fail to see how wearing it fishing does anything other than give an additional thing to worry about.
Says who the "when to wear jewelry" police?
I'm not aware of any such police, and even if so nobody is saying when and when not to wear jewelry. We are pointing out that doing stupid things increases the likelihood of a bad result, whether it be wearing jewelry, parking cars, flashing money, or anything else.
How is what I do any different than when you decide to wear yours.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that I actually decide when to do it, while you say you do it all the time no matter what. You might want to read up on a little thing called "the stealth existence" by noted instructor John Farnam.