The vast majority of folks in our waters tow their dinks; everything from 8' fiberglass rowing dinks to 35' center consoles behind megayachts. We've towed a RIB with a 15HP two-stroke mounted for 20 years, and have never flipped it, filled it with water, or lost hold of it due to a broken painter. We didn't always, but now we tow with a bridle and dedicated line, and tie the painter to the tow line as a backup. (This came in handy once, when the bridle stitching failed on one side; now it's riveted.)
The prospect of taking the motor off and hauling the boat on board is just not appealing to me, at all. Our "rigging for towing" consists only of rigging the bridle, and tilting up the motor after tightening the steering head. (There's a lever for this.)
We've done this in some hairy conditions, too, and even though I once looked back and saw the bottom of the dink, crossing a large, short-period series of waves, it never flipped or swamped.
Theft is rare here, as far as I can tell.
(By the way, I gladly trade the marginally increased fuel consumption of a 2-stroke over a 4-stroke for the weight savings alone. Mine's 73 lb. A 4-stroke 15 is over 100. I find mixing oil and gas easy - I just keep a small oil bottle with 10 oz. in it and buy 4 gallons of gas at a time, for my 6 gallon tank. I'd rather do this than have to change the oil in a 4-stroke! As for noise, at idle there's a difference, but powered up and going, especially at planing speeds, there's no perceptible difference. I keep two 1999/2000 vintage Mercs going; you have to be an enthusiast for this. I wish Evinrude would introduce a two-stroke E-Tec for the small boat market.)
