In my priority, if there is two projects, one have the escrow and one doesn't have it then, of course, I would go for the one have it in a heartbeat. I wish escrow would be a mandatory for every bounty campaign in bitcointalk.
Yes, the project choice is always open to be chosen by each bounty participant, but all participants will obviously choose what they believe in and he likes according to the considerations he has researched first, such as his escrow and others as well.
I agree on that i believe that bounty hunters will always choose what they beleive, but the safest bounty is the bounty campaign that has an escrow, if there is an escrow there is an asurance of earning and the bounty hunter work could never been wasted, there are now so many bounty hunters that become disappointed now a days because there are so many scam project that doesnt pay hunters that is why they search for the campaign that has an escrow.