I agree the Reflect damage is more practical if you think about it from a gamer perspective because you want to out damage the person your fighting but if it was your real life on the line then I would pick the damage reduction from safeguard.
If Reflect damage can be upgraded to 100% that only hurts the other person and if that person is much stronger than you he might be ok with taking that damage just so her can kill you in one shot. However with the damage reduction from safeguard even if the person is stronger than you they can't one shot you with any attack that logic would tell them should, and this way you have more options when fighting and can trick people that think they are stronger than you.
If you compare it to game logic then it's like picking between a set of spiked armor or a large shield and if you have ever played as a tank you know that the extra armor from your shield is what makes a tank so key to a team and lets them grind solo better than other.