In my experience, on this topic, there are only three kinds of RC people.

1. Those who have been hit by a prop and lived to tell about it. Though it may or may not have been a serious injury.
2. Those who haven't been hit by a prop YET.
3. Those who have been hit, but have forgotten about it or just lie about it.

In my case it was one of my 1/2A models and luckily I was working behind it tweaking the needle with it blasting along full steam at 20K rpm. I accidentally got a little too close and received a bruised finger nail for getting in the way slightly. Now I was standing on the back side so I got the flat of the blade rather than the edge, so it could have been worse.

Whether its a valid technique or not, one should not be advising beginners to get their hands anywhere near the prop. They should be using a chicken stick or a starter. Once they get some experience they will decide for themselves what works best, but until then we need to be guiding them along the safest path, not putting them in a position where a small mistake might result in a serious injury.

Duke