The more i ride my different bikes, the less mistakes I make when time to shift. When I rarely rode with brifters, I found myself reaching down for levers that did not exist, missing shifts because I had to come back up to the brifters. Now that I spread my time around more bikes, I make fewer boo-boos. Same thing has happened with toe-clips vs. clipless. I remain somewhat teachable at 61. I find this reassuring.
I do take a certain amount of satisfaction in shifting my friction levers smoothly, and occasionally noting surprise on the faces of other riders... Apparently, I'm some sort of daredevil, taking a hand off my bars just to change gears. It's that, or they're laughing at the primitive technology.
OP: Go for it, short smooth cable runs make DT shifting precise and a pleasure after a bit of practice.
Cheers, Eric