Wow, thanks very much to folks above! I appreciate the confidence in what I said.
One other factor came up in this thread which I passed on, but given it got raised I might as well speak to it. That is the issue of hard chines. I flip between paddling a boat with a single hard chine and a soft chined boat depending on the paddle and my company. While I cannot say either is more likely to actually capsize, honesty requires I admit that when I first got the single hard chined boat into some decent waves it was felt more unnerving than the rounder hulled boat. And that was after 3 or so years paddling rounder hulled boats. After a while that went away, it has been longer than I remember since I notice the difference between the two.
So yeah, I realized it was very solid on that chine if I stayed out of the boat’s way. But unlike a round chined boat, it really like it is hitting that chine hard. If someone is already uncomfortable with the motion of the kayak, like a new paddler, feeling that whack is only going to make them more tense and likely to stiffen up. Followed by a swim.
The old NDK Romany, IMO, is still one of the most brilliant learning boats ever put on the water. It is extremely kind to a new paddler in terms of staying upright, while having the responsiveness for a good paddler to take into the worst slop that can be found. But take a look at that hull - while it is a single chine, it is a very softened one. The other forgotten design is the multiple chines of the original drop skegged Elaho by Necky. The original release of that boat was pretty disinterested in going straight, but those multiple chines provided a lot of points that the boat would sit on then restabilize somewhat gracefully.
I know there are other, more current boats that carry this kind of ethic, unfortunately I can’t speak well to them because I don’t have seat time there.