I agree.The Forest Service is quick to gig for that. I volunteer with them, and have a chainsaw card. You can‘t run a chainsaw with them without one. They say your thumb around the handle is to keep your hand on in case of kickback, so it sets the brake. Otherwise that running bar is coming right for your head. Makes sense to me, it was a hard habit to break when I first started volunteering with them.
I had said that when I'm in situations where there could be kickback I'll wrap it, most other times I go back and forth. After driving truck for 20yrs its more than a minor irritation for me. As I've said before, I find experience trumps safety equipment/rules, that being said I wear my ppe much of the time and suggest others do the same. I find many of the rules put in place are not for our protection, but to stop lawsuits(protect companies/organizations). There is no cure for stupid, although the rest are looked on as stupid(untrained fits into that) because of a few. Many injuries are caused from a lack of training, I think it's great that you can buy a saw and there's a safety class you can take, if you want.