I'm still undecided which way I want to go with the highway pegs. My goal is to have somewhere to move my feet to on longer rides and I really don't like the look of crash bars but as you point out they do serve a purpose. Maybe I'm just in denial, as I don't want to imagine dropping this bike let alone having to pick it back up without a forklift.
I had a low speed front end loss at about 10mph in a mud hole that was covered by gravel in a car park at a country Bike race track last year, the crash bar had a couple of lite scratches did not bend at the low speed and more importantly meant the bike did not get any damage, also made picking the bike up easier
I have yet to see another Rocket on the road in Mudermore since I started looking at them a couple of years ago, although I did talk to the owner of a R3T and his wife at Pete's Cycle earlier this summer.
What part of town are you from? I currently live in Carney and work in Middle River, if you spend any time in northeast B'more I'm sure our paths will cross at some point.