I ignore the histogram. It shows the contrast range (which depends on the scene and usually can't be changed) and exposure (curve crushed against the right edge means blown highlights). A tiny but important highlight can be missed in the histogram but the blinkies will show it. So I go with the blinkies, not the histogram.
The blinkies (and probably the histogram too) show the tone values for the rendered JPG, not the raw file. So often you can recover areas that blinked later in your editing software if you shoot raw.
Selecting different picture styles will give different JPGs and therefore will have different sensitivities to the highlights. For that reason I select Neutral.
Clipped shadows are usually not a problem but it might depend.
Editing is a really important part of photography and can add a big creative element to your work. I agree that all editing software will have similar abilities.
