Colorado, you sure dug up a dated thread ... more power to you! If nothing else, we got to hear some comments from folks who REALLY don't like engineers
There is some basis to those bitter feelings. I've been in too many offices where everything was controlled off one switch, or there was a shared neutral between all the lights, with the result that you had to either work hot, or in the dark.
Pick your risk multiplier!
That situation, thankfully, has become lees a problem as the result of 'energy codes.' The "experts" have suddenly discovered that light use less energy when they're turned off.
It was just a situation ... opening a shared neutral (something had been tied in that I didn't know about) that led to my buying the $600 fried guts of a change machine. Oops.
So ... here's my solution ... especially for lights: use the "Wago" or "In-Sure" type connectors, taking care that there is at least one extra opening, for adding future wires. These connectors make "adding hot" as safe and simple as it's ever likely to be.