Uhhh Ohhh, whatcha gonna do,,,, the safety police is gonna come for you
I must confess, I learned my tractoring on an old 48 Ferguson TE20 and 66 856 Wheel Horse and neither had any kind of shutdown switches other than the ignition switch. No ROPS either. Safety was the responsibility of the operator (me) to practice properly.
I have many gates to open and close as well as having to constantly dismount to remove debris in my path that gets scattered about so in MY case I've found it more benefitial to by-pass the seat switches to keep the wear and tear of disengageing/reengageing
pto powered implements down to a minimum. Thus I can safely remove my seat from the seat when needed. This is a responsibility I knowingly accept, as well as the consequences.
My ROPS does get pinned up when operating tho, it makes a great radio and aux lights mounting frame
re. original question, IMHO the foot controlled HST is much more safer than either the lever controlled HST AND/OR gear model tractors (I have all three types). I can easily control my speed, in either forward or reverse PRECISELY while simultaniously haveing both hands free to control both the tractor and implement.
I've never suffered fatigue on my foot controlled HST but if it did become an issue I'd add the crusie control feature to it in a NY minute