I use both face to face and DEX to sell my bitcoin. Face to face is only to those people that I know very well like my friends and family members. I am introducing close people around me to bitcoin and whenever, they want to buy, they prefer buying from me directly.
I use DEx if it's urgent for me to sell and none of these guys are ready to buy from me. I think, we should prioritize privacy more and encourage people to use bitcoin in a decentralized way.
I would say I would avoid face to face even with known people, no need for that. I think it is quite important to realize that if we had some bitcoins and want to sell, just do it legally. If you want to not do it legally then there are questions about why? And I would not help that person.
If anyone asks me how they can turn their bitcoins into cash (or their cash into bitcoin) and they want to do it privately without being tracked, then I would not advise them anything, they are after something shady for sure.
Its questionable on why those people don't want to do it on legal way, since we have many legitimate ways on how to buy and sell our crypto's.
That's why same as you, I also don't like to do buy or even sell physically even if we know or that people is known for personal security reasons. Yeah for sure there are shady stuffs happening and its hard to get involve with that type of deal they made.
So usually I turn it down and will just buy or do sell my crypto on exchange.