As an analogy, I use a commercial grade table saw for woodworking that is pre-war (the big one, WWII) that is 240v and nearly 4hp, which by today's standards might be considered unsafe by some people. However, I know its limitations, take precautions, and am super comfortable with it. I don't begrudge those fellow woodworkers that like to use saws with built in sensors and all sorts of whistles and bells for safety. I get it. But I'm comfortable with my saw and it has worked just fine for about 75 years.
The problem with any downloading program is downloading executable files. Two ways to get around this.
First, all downloads ought to go into a designated folder, or even better, a separate drive on your computer, and even better is what I do, I have a small expendable laptop which does all the dirty work for downloads. Look at the files you've downloaded before installing them to your made hard drive or your main desktop. Obviously if its anything other than a flac, wave, mp4 or mp3, delete it and don't click on it.
Second, use an anti-virus (the one installed on Windows is a good one and updates about monthly) and scan those downloaded files before installing or loading them onto your main drive or your main computer. About once every couple years, I seem to get a virus on the laptop, which the Microsoft Virus program tells me, and it is usually fairly benign, like a pop-up. I haven't been stupid enough to download an executable, since somebody hacked my friends email and sent me naked pictures of Anna Kornakova in the 1990s which of course weren't naked pictures of her, but a virus.
I do sometimes download a bootleg audio program off some sketchy web sites and some of those have nasty viruses and some are perfectly workable. Again, use some common sense protocols when downloading anything. My laptop is expendable, but so far has not had to go into service for re-formatting for a very long time. Once it functions in my laptop, I move the files or programs over to my desktop.
What torrent program one uses and how one downloads is a matter of personal preference based on your tolerance for risk and one's protocols for addressing those risks.