Al, I own a Shield, and carry a Shield. It's a great carry gun, but if I wanted to carry something larger, it'd probably be an SD9VE.
I actually like the SD9VE's trigger. I like a longer trigger with a surprise break. With the Shield and other M&Ps, there's some trigger take-up, then a wall. You pull through the wall to break the sear. It's that way because the striker is mostly pre-cocked (S&W claims 98% pre-cocked, to try to meet the double action definition required by some departments).
The SD9VE's action and trigger are fundamentally different. The striker is not pre-cocked. Pulling the trigger cocks the striker back and then falls down and releases the striker. You don't feel a wall, and it's a good and clean surprise break. It actually appeals to me quite a bit. The Shield's trigger is okay, but there's actually a lot of over travel on it, which I don't really care for. I also had to polish the striker block ramp on the trigger bar quite a bit to smooth it up.
I own an M&P 9, but bought one with a manual safety because I thought I'd modify it with a light trigger and other parts to make it a fun range gun. I've sort of lost the desire to that, but I don't want to carry it, either, because of the safety. So it's sort of become a gun I don't use...