Is it just wrong? I'm throwing a few ideas about in my head and thinking about adding gears to something running drops. Bar end shifters look like a faff, pockets aren't deep enough for sti (I've already got levers and brakes) so i'm considering a thumb shifter on the top of the bar ... will the cycling world shun and disown me?

... any more than they do already?

Bar end shifters are actually ok, especially on something like midges as they are so compact you don't have to move your hand much from the hood or not at all if you are in the drops.

I think they look kind of cool in a weird way too...but then I also think poor show brown is cool. I have Microshift ones -

I have some shims to try some thumbie mount samples I have on flare-drops. Was going to mount them so the cable exit pointed up and the thumbie was operated from the drops, sitting inside the brake, prob just above the clamp. Kelly's Take-off style. Need the bike set for drops-only riding tho. May be a bad idea, not got round to it yet.

If you have oversize bars, MTB bars taper much nearer the stem than road bars do, so you might not be able to get the shifters close enough in to the centre of the bars for comfortable shifting.

I have Ultegra thumbies on Midge bars and they're good, not caught my knees on them which was my initial reservation, and they're easy to use with very little hand movement to get to them.

I did it. It was OK. I never spent much time on the drops, but the shifters were close enough to the hoods for easy access and when I was aero I didn't really want to change gear.

I used Paul's Thumbies for drop bars. I just wish I could have god them a bit wider rather than so close to the centre.