I sold my Unisaw 3 years ago and bought a 3 hp SawStop ICS. Like you, safety was my only reason for trading. The Unisaw was an excellent,well built saw. The SawStop is every bit its equal or better. I will not buy another saw.
I have used Freud Fusion blades in my sawStop with no problems, and I have occasionally used a Freud TK rip blade, also with no issues. The Fusion blade is somewhere between a 1/8" full kerf and a thin kerf, maybe 3/32. No issues with the riving knife. I was not aware of the concern about blade deformation in the event of a brake trigger. I may rethink using the TK rip blade.
I substituted the left table extension with a cast iron Bench Dog router table extension and have been very happy with it. The ICS table is about 3" deeper than the PCS table. The Bench Dog router table extension was too narrow to bridge the full depth of the saw table, so I filled in the gaps with some heavy aluminum square tub. It works fine. Also, the mounting holes on the CI table extension didn't match the holes on the SawStop table. I took the CI extension to a local machine shop and had them mill the holes to match the saw's mounting holes. Works fine. I think Bench Dog now makes CI router table extensions especially for the SawStop, so those issues may no longer be problems.
Here's a photo of my set-up:
Hank
P.S. I use my Freud box joint blade and an 8" Forrest Dado King with the 8" blade brake and a dado table insert. Both work fine. Except for the discomfort of having to crawl around on the floor to change the blade brakes, I don't find any difference using dado-type blades between the SawStop and my old Unisaw.
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