I've spent a fair amount of time on both types, and I am using a slider now. FWIW, here's my experiences.
First, cutting plywood is not even a close comparison. Not even close to being close. Now, I mostly build furniture and guitars, and only use plywood for building cabinets for my home. But when I am building a cabinet, the slider is the difference between easily making a perfect cut and struggling to get a decent cut. And especially with the price of plywood these days, I appreciate being able to quickly make a cut that I know will be perfect every time.
Second, with regular lumber, cross-cuts and miters are super easy on the slider, due to the outrigger table and large crosscut fence. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy miter gauge for a cabinet saw and not have anything close to the simplicity and ease of use that the slider offers for crosscutting long boards. The large fence makes it very easy to get precise angles, although some of the expensive miter gauges offer positive stops at very small increments too. The big fence also give you plenty of support for crosscutting long boards, so you don't have the board flopping around or shimmying and screwing up your angle. The only disadvantage to the slider in this area is that the large crosscut fence is bigger when you remove it, so it's a bit heavier and you have to have a space to put it.
Third, for ripping, the slider has pros and cons. One big advantage is that you can rip boards that do not already have a jointed edge, by using the sliding table. Another is that the sliding table allows you to make a lot of jigs easier than with the cabinet saw. For example, to make tapered legs on a cabinet saw, you have to make a jig that rides against the rip fence. With a slider, you simply clamp in a couple of stop blocks on the sliding table and you're off and running. Another advantage is that the European-style fence is much more adjustable than the fences you typically see on cabinet saws. The disadvantage to the slider is that for ripping, I prefer to stand just to the left of the blade, but the sliding table mechanism is right there. So I have had to adjust my position when I rip. I wouldn't call it awkward. But my preferred standing position is already taken by the saw.
Fourth, from a safety perspective, I consider the sliding table way ahead of the cabinet saw-even a SawStop. Here's why.
A tablesaw presents two primary dangers - kickback and sticking your finger in the blade. Unless you unreasonably fail to use push sticks, kickback is the biggest danger (and is even the cause of many fingers in blades). There are three primary causes of kickback.
First, when ripping, the material sometimes tries to pinch the blade. Sliding table saws typically come with a riving knife, which almost completely solves the kickback problem. Because it rides up and down with the blade, you don't need to remove it for non-through cuts. So you tend to keep in on the saw. And if you do choose to remove it for a cut, it's simple to remove and then put it back on, so you're likely to do so. Cabinet saws, however, typically do not have a riving knife. They may have a splitter, but splitters are enough of a hassle that most people take them off sooner or later for a non-through cut and then never bother to put them back on.
Second, when you rip, the edge of the board that's against the fence needs to be perfectly jointed. If it is not, and there is a bow in the board, then the fence can push the material into the side of the blade, causing kickback. However, the European-style fence allows you to position the fence in a way that reduces this risk. It's a bit complicated to explain.
Third, people often use the rip fence when they shouldn't-eg., for cross-cutting plywood. That's a very dangerous way to cut, but cabinet saws don't offer any easy way to crosscut a large piece of plywood, so most people use the rip fence to guide the material (and some - gasp - try it freehand). The sliding table makes these cuts so easy and safe that you won't be tempted to use the rip fence when you shouldn't.
With these safety features, the only way your fingers are likely to touch the blade is if you try to rip without a push stick. I never do that, so it's not a concern for me. (Even on wide boards, I use a push stick just to stay in the habit.)
As for the left-tilt/right-tilt on the blade, I've never had an issue with it. The "tunnel" is only a problem on narrow boards, and the solution there is to do your angle cut on a wide board, then put your blade back to 90 degrees and rip off the narrow width you are looking for. I would put this problem in the same category as many problems: There are many ways to accomplish the same result, and if your saw isn't good at one way, then pick another way that your saw does well. Things like the tunnel only become a problem if you are dead-set on making a cut one way regardless of whether there are better ways to do it.
