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I must ask, do you own a top-handled saw? It has been my (limited) experience, that most/all climbers use a top-handled saw. If no one ever intended to use it one handed, I would have to believe that much fewer people would have them.
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The reason top handled chainsaws were designed with the handle at the top was to make them more compact and easier to start with better balance than rear handled saws.
One-handed use means the climber has less control over the saw. If you use the saw one-handed you run the risk of the saw skidding along the branch out of control into your free arm or hand tearing your skin and flesh to ribbons and splintering your bones beyond repair.
One-handed use is mostly caused by poor work positioning.
The best treeclimbers are the people who use more modern treeclimbing techniques and equipment to achieve the best possible working position in the tree which then allows them to use the saw correctly with two hands.
Another reason people use the saw one-handed is their inability to recognise when it is appropriate to use a handsaw. You can easily cut up to 3 inch diameter branches with a handsaw.
If you are at full stretch trying to make that reduction cut at the end of a limb you may find it hard to make the angle with a handsaw - but getting the angle near enough right is better than attempting to make a perfect pruning cut with a chainsaw one-handed and have it skate along the branch uncontrollably destroying the branch bark ridge etc.
This is a quote from the STIHL INSTRUCTION MANUAL for the MS200T ;
"WARNING!
Do not operate a chainsaw with one hand!
Serious injury may occur to the operator, helpers, bystanders or any combination of these persons may result from one-handed operation.
A chainsaw is intended to be used with two hands."
So if anyone wants to argue a case for one-handed use of a top-handled saw they can take it up with Stihl.
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I would agree that the top handled saws are better balanced, but I don't see that being a benefit for two handed use, if anything it seems a liability. Top handled saws kick back easier because you have less leverage than a traditional rear handled saw. If you always get the work positioning you need to two hand, why own a top handled. They are slightly more compact, but that hardly matters when the saw dangles from the saddle. Easier to start? How? If the latest ANSI states we can't drop start a saw, that pretty much only allows us to start a saw with a straight arm, or with the saw secured between the legs. Do all of us follow this? I also doubt it, but that is another argument. If the balance mattered when two handing, we would see some of the larger saws used on the ground with top handles, but nobody would do that.
Sure Stihl says not to one hand a saw, but they are taking the safest route. I agree with you entirely that two-handing is safer, but the reality is the saws are popular because of the ease of using them one handed.
