If I look at a P01 and I add a cajun trigger kit and I get the slide milled I'm sitting within $100 or so of the out the door cost of the Shadow 2 compact.

I'd like to carry the gun and I figure Shadow 2 Compact with safety off with a dropped hammer is the way to go about doing it.

But it made me wonder; if the Shadow 2 is a DA/SA with a safety and no decocker; are folks just manually dropping the hammer to re-set it every time to a DA/SA pull?

Or are comp folks just keeping SA with it locked and dropping the safety and rolling?

If they are doing DA/SA every time, they're doing it carefully or there's some method to doing it without the decocker?

I think having a dropped hammer is actually less safe than cocked/half cocked with the safety on.

There's no firing pin block on the shadow 2, so if the hammer is down, and it's dropped onto the hammer with enough force, it could drive the firing pin into the primer.

Yes, everybody manually lowers the hammer on a Shadow 2 when shooting in DA.

I prefer to put my thumb on the back of the slide in front of the hammer, pull the trigger, then roll my thumb out of the way for DA.

This. It's simple and safe. The hammer will stop on the half cock notch, which is where it should be.

The only people dropping to half notch in competition are using guns with a decocker that sets the hammer to half cock.... at least for USPSA.

A tuned P-01 will make a much better and safer carry gun than a Shadow 2 Compact. None of the Shadow line are drop safe - they are race guns in every sense of the word. Someone was killed at a USPSA match somewhat recently (2023?) due to a dropped Shadow. YMMV, but I refuse to carry a pistol that isn't drop safe.

And yes, with an S2C you would need to manually decock the pistol every time you chambered a round. I shot Production with an SP-01 Shadow from 2012-2017 before moving to Carry Optics and manually decocked it thousands of times. It's no problem to manually decock at the range pointed at a berm in case of an accident (rare, but they do occur), but I never loved doing it at home in an apartment with no truly safe backstop in any direction.

I know. Which is utterly stupid and unsafe. The decocker takes the hammer to the half cock notch because that's where it's supposed to be. Why in the world would anyone demand that substantially similar guns with safeties have the hammer lowered past the notch?

A DA/SA with a safety should be allowed to be holstered cocked and locked or on the notch, shooter's preference. It's mind boggling that the rules require the hammer to be put in the one position it's not designed to be in while holstered.

Circling back to the OP's original concern, I wouldn't carry a pistol that's not drop safe either, so no Shadow. The only CZ I carry is a P-01 Omega with a safety. I like the aluminum frame for a carry gun better too.

I disagree.  I fully believe that a shadow 2 with a factory firing pin will not fire if dropped on the hammer.  However it will with extended firing pin.  With the factory pin, the hammer fully decocked on the pin retaining plate, it has no way to put any energy into the pin if dropped on the hammer.

I think the downside of the shadow 2 (manual decock) is when you load it/press check it at home or if you need to use it and need to decock it after a shooting.  You need to be absolutely comfortable decocking the gun manually.  There are a few ways to do it.  I think the safest is pinching the hammer with your weak thumb/forefinger.   I should do a video...  I've probably decocked a shadow 2 10,000 times, early in my journey I had an ND (into the berm during a long training day, not at home).

If you are new to CZ, I have a hard time making the recommendation.  Obviously the OR is better, especially since it takes a full width dot.  But the P01 decocker is nice.  I started carrying P01 after shooting Shadow 2's so much and bought a S2C when it came out and transitioned to it.  But, I often consider going back to P01 from the S2C just because of the decocker.

FWIW, I have both.  3 Shadow 2's, a S2C, and P01 Omega.