My Järvenpää Puukko has no guard and I've used it to cut many things from oily to wet and from easy to tough, many times getting slop on the handle and I've never gotten so much as the slightest cut for lack of a finger guard.

If there were that many Scandinavian's slicing their fingers on knives without guards, I think they would have rectified the design quite some time ago. I also think that they offer finger guards more and more for people with no knife training. It's a skill that's not passed on like it once was.

Just an opinion, I could be wrong.

Of course, now that I've bragged about never having cut myself on a knife with no guard, I'm bound to loose a finger. LOL

As an additional note, yes it's probably best that a plastic handled knife with very little texture have a finger guard. These types of materials are probably another reason for more and more finger guards in designs.