Most browsers have de-emphasized favicons in their UIs due to phishing, by moving them as far from the address bar as possible or through other measures, like Safari which only shows it when the address bar is focused.

People used padlock favicons to trick users into thinking they're browsing a secure website.

Hmm, looks like Safari does display the favicon right next to the address bar: http://i.imgur.com/Gj0Wu8h.png

So someone could theoretically use a green padlock icon as the favicon and still trick users.

My gripe is that with favicons missing in the tab bar, it's pretty hard to quickly navigate to the tab I want: http://i.imgur.com/yhStBMj.png

That's not the current version of Safari. The current version 8.x.y does not show favicons.

It's hard to imagine using a modern browser without favicons on the tabs. What are the folks behind Safari thinking?

It’s easier on the eyes. You don’t to squint at a 16x16 images to get to the right tab. Once you get used to it, you won’t want to go back to Firefox or Chrome. I use Safari 8 daily and it’s simply amazing, fast and reliable.

Nice try, ghost of Steve Jobs.