I've had both. Currently I have an dark 8 inch and look over it but in the winter I use a clear 12 inch. I don't like looking through a shield at night but the rest of the time as long as it's not too scratched I'm cool looking through it.
If you have ever ridden all day long in a rain storm both looking through and looking over, you, if you are like me, will never want a tall shield again that you cannot look over. Even a non-recurve short shield generally blows bugs over and around you. A few insects in the forehead should not make you want to give up riding but constantly having to reach over the top of your shield to try and wipe off the rain water and mud so you can make out the road might make you want to quit for safety's sake.
Ride in the rain for a couple of hours and you will never want to look through again. I ridden 60,000 miles in the last 4 years and have only been hit by a few bugs by looking over. If you look over you want to make sure that the edge of the windshied in not in your line of sight. The edge can give strange reflections that will drive you crazy.
Gotta look over it. I just replaced the stock shield on my RG with the HD Low Profile (6" shorter than stock) and it's a good height for short trips. I'm gonna trim the stocker down so I just look over it for longer runs.