I have had great success (borat voice) with taking my friends out to learn toeside predrifts grabing rail as their very first slide. Super short term, as in first 2-3 sessions, they likey fell more doing predrifts because of the initially harder to execute concepts of "ok time to kick out that back leg yet keep most weight forward" and "keep your eyes on the exit of the slide" etc.
But once learned, WAY less overall falling and quicker progression resulted from skiping 2 hands down toesides because:
Starting with 2 hand tony's then learing predrifts is basically just falling the amount you would have learning predrifts first but with extra falling previous to doing so since very little skill/knowledge transfers over from 2 hand tonys if any.
It is likely a starter would actually fall more when they do actually start to learn predrifts after learning 2 hand tonys since they now have bad muscle memory and conflicting information on the correct way to slide.
In my area if someone knows they want to start dh, a 2 hand tony will never be taught. What do y'all think?
If someone is on the edge about dh thats a different story and the easiest possible way into the sport (2 hand tony) is the way to go.