I have a similar pedal history to Starfish's, except that I've stayed with spd's. I used cages on my old 10-speed and put cages on my hybrid 4 years ago. I never tightened the straps so much that I couldn't easily slip my foot out. Of course, this means I was losing some of the mechanical advantage but they still kept my feet well positioned on the pedals and prevented them from slipping off the front. Having to flip them up to get your foot in is not much different than having to flip over a single-sided road pedal. For someone who may be afraid of clipless, cages are definitely an advantage over platform pedals.