Steve:
I know a riving knife is considered an important safety addition to a table saw, and it sounds like you have figured out a solution (thicker blade) to the problem you analyzed.
I'm sure my lawyer would advise me NOT to suggest removing the riving knife from your saw, so I won't. :-)

That said, I've never used a saw with a riving knife, and I've ripped (literally) miles of strips - both thin strips for canoes and kayaks and thicker (1.25") strips for a sailboat.

Awwww..... yes I used to do that too, no guard or riving knife. I bet I had ripped more miles of strip than even John.

How do you learn? Monkey see, monkey do. It's about that intelligent. MOST INJURIES HAPPEN ON THE TABLE SAW!

Kickbacks? You bet. The problem is the back quarter of the blade is spinning up and at-cha, not cutting at all.

I didn't really know what a riving knife was until a couple years ago some bright light posted a video on this BB on riving knives.

I WAS SOLD!

I was going to go out and buy a custom one, (on line sites sell em) for my older saw, but then I realized I could (don't try this at home!) modify the blade guard that came with the saw to make a riving knife. You could use that as a template for making a riving knife the thickness of your blade too.

This isn't the video posted here before but this guy will show you why to install one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7sRrC2Jpp4

Then this guy will explain. I know the ads suck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owng8yV4ySI

And see my info on safe saw set-up, down the page at - http://www.laughingloon.com/shoptips3.html

It's time to stop monkeying around and adapt safe practices.

Properly set-up a riving knife does not impede anything you've done before on a saw. You won't even remember it's there but you'll be able to count to ten on your fingers.

Use it, or loose it!

Rob