I'm not sure what horrible things have caused such caution with the wire wheels, I use mine every day, buffer mounted and grinder cup versions ( I do prefer the twisted cups for the grinder ) I can touch and brush against mine without gloves and it hardly does anything to my skin, I would fear a belt sander more than any wheel. Also the finish you get from taking a piece to the wheel hot can be very nice and scale wont stand for more than a second.
Even for getting into hard to reach places I use them:
Edit: I do keep my safety glasses on from the walk over from the anvil though I have only ever been hit in the legs with random slag~