It's not rolling the dice. Obviously you're one of the people that thinks having the probe between the tank and UTH is the only "safest way". When you have the probe down there what happens when you insulate the substrate above it? The substrate gets hotter than normal until the probe catches up to the temperature change. When a snake is on top of the UTH that's exactly what happens except they are a little cooler, that is until they warm up. The snake is insulation over the UTH.
I don't know why you have a problem with me. All I'm saying is that having a probe inside isn't as dangerous as some people make it seem.