1st or 2nd - split the difference

I don't care about neutral. IMHO, neutral is for starting & duck-walking the bike, nothing else.

That said, when coming to a stop, I don't sweat downshifting to first gear until after I come to a stop, i.e. if every once in a while I'm at a stop sign in second, I don't cry myself to sleep. Yeah, *conceivably* it could bite me in the ass if I need to pull away and I'm still in second. But realistically, I find developing my "muscle memory" to stop ASAP (i.e. brake WHILE pulling in the clutch and disengaging the engine) is more critical than the MSF-directed "always downshift to first when stopping" technique.*

* This does not apply to higher gear, i.e. of course I downshift and blip from 5 to 4 to 3, etc., when slowing. But I just don't worry so much about downshifting all the way down to 1, 2nd is fine for me until the very last moment as long as I've got the clutch in and the brakes pulled/pressed. When I need to emergency brake, I NEED TO EMERGENCY BRAKE-- downshifting is secondary in developing my muscle memory.