Yes, the guard is not of a hinderance. I noticed this too.
But isn't the blade of the standard kukri machete wider, thus more impact when chopping?
I do have to say that I have never had my hand slide forwards when stabbing, even on solid objects (wood).
Only one knife/machete where it did occur, is the Cold Steel Smatchet. The handle is a little wide for my hand. And a few times my hand did slide forwards when stabbing harder objects, and came into contact with the guard. Not hard, but it's not a good thing.
But with no other knife this happened. Not the CS Bowie machete ( I did crazy hard tests with that one), CS kukri machete , Mora knives... or whatever I can think of I have had in the past.
Ofcours, the guard on the kukri plus does offer some protection, both ways, from incoming blades, and the hand sliding forwards, in case it would happen ..
But the Gurkha soldiers have kukri's without guards. And honestly , I'm not worried about my hand sliding forward when doing some self defense stabbing so to speak.
The kukri plus blade is more narrow, so would be better for penetration regarding self defense...