[pickpocket]

It's a sound philosophy - you're simply splitting hairs.

Only you can decide when to draw, as the legal criteria are whether or not you felt your life to be in danger and whether or not a reasonable person would feel the same.
The "rule" wasn't designed to make you hesitate when acting to protect life or limb - it was meant to warn people against showing the prick who just cut you off in traffic your brand-new XD-40 just to show him who he's messing with.
It was meant to warn people against flashing their weapons around in order to impress their buddies in a bar.
It was meant to warn people against irresponsible disregard for their responsibilities as a concealed handgun carrier.

Let's look at this another way - using your logic. If you draw your weapon in order to deter a potential threat, at what point do you decide that it's a potential threat? I would hope that if you have felt the need to draw your weapon in order to deter a potential threat that you would have done so with the full intent of "using" it if necessary in order to stop that same threat.

If you're not prepared to pull the trigger, leave it in the holster.