From what I was reading, the removal of the favicon in Safari was more just a UI redesign decision to remove "clutter". Personally I don't find a 16x16 icon too intrusive, but hey, what ever floats their boat. I was hoping that it was as you said, and was to prevent maliciously designed favicons from tricking users on plaintext sites (where the protocol had been stripped by the UI) into thinking they were on a secure site.
I don't use Safari, so I don't know how they render their address bar.
I don't use Safari, so I don't know how they render their address bar.