Yes, when I said you crank up the intensity with weapons I meant because of the risk factor, not because you shouldn't being practicing taijutsu with intensity.
In the accident I referred to, the guy I was practicing with didn't have the control to stop the strike after it slipped by my block--something else I ought to have known already. But of course, that's part of the base work of weapons practice--to develop that control. I figured out fairly early I couldn't learn the first thing my sensei was trying to teach until I developed it. I used to practice on azalea blossoms in the back yard... if I got through the practice without wearing out the blossom, I was doing good.