Jim,
Love ya brother, but low rigs are not necessarily”Mall Ninja.” A coupe of circumstances warrant them; First, body armor like US military issue Interceptor Body Armor (IBA). Having a pistol on your hip when wearing IBA/rack gear is not fun. The gun and gear is always gimping you and hanging up, especially when you’re in and out of vehicles. Second; when you’re wearing a BDU or ACU type top that isn’t tucked in. Again, it’s constantly binding or hanging up and, unlike an open front vest, digging up under the top to get at the gun and then trying to get it clear is not very cool either.
The thigh rigs are not very comfortable themselves either, but they beat the hang-ups at hip level when wearing gear and out of pants tops. They bang around when you run and flop around when you walk, unless you go with a wide base and snug the straps down real good, then they stay in place. Properly adjusted for height, you can get pretty fast with a thigh rig too.
At the end of the day, there is no comfort to be found anywhere in armed situations, only varying levels of misery. – Mosby