The new HD series is going to be drop-safe. Which is interesting because I would imagine being drop-safe should be a prerequisite to being considered "Duty-Grade" these days. Sadly that will affect the crispness of the trigger break. Can't have your cake and eat it, too.
I wouldn't go so far as to say every gun a person owns should be. Many guns from back in the day were not. Range toys and such I'm not worried about. But I would agree that any defensive or "duty" weapon ought to be.
Yup, Staccato (STI) was never a 'duty gun' company. They did competition guns and being drop safe wasn't really an issue. Now they are trying to branch out into 'duty' and EDC where it's much more of a problem.
I would definitely own one for range use but as a carry gun? There seems to be a lot of better options than a chunky 1911 that still holds less than my 365 and cost 4x as much. A nice trigger only goes so far.