So using this knife for going on three weeks now, I can say that I'm much less "meh" about it. The slider button has broken in nicely, and after many openings, I will say that I am always much faster than with a thumb stud and equally as fast as my ZT flipper. I've been enjoying how much lighter this one is than the ZT.
So I am open to buying flip open autos in the future (OTF knives are still too rich for my blood for a good one) as long as they have a nice lefty-friendly mechanism like this one does. I also am liking the combined open/safety design. Not having carried an auto before, I kept the safety engaged early on and it is a smooth slide from safe to open. That said, I have been carrying it with the safety off now, and feel comfortable doing so, at least with this mechanism design.