I'm just gonna apologize already for some long run-on sentences and stuff, the text below the questions are more just unorganized thought piles then actual organized specific confusions.
Q1: Are private trackers worth it?
I've been seeing a lot recently about how private trackers are like the holy grail for piracy, better rips, faster releases, no ISP notices (I use a vpn so this doesn't matter), etc, but I have never had issues like that. Every time I want to torrent a movie (including new ones) I can get them from places like 1337x, (rip) RARGB, or even tpb with good enough quality for what I need (3-7gb usually). I don't have issues with finding new releases or higher quality ones and all the torrents I need I can find on public places. So what actually would be the appeal of private trackers for someone like me, like what do private trackers actually have that public ones don't? Also, it wouldn't help that my internet connect is absolutely horrible for torrenting, 500-600+ down and like 15 up with a vpn on and it isn't better without one on much, just faster downloads. And so this would just make meeting the "share ratios" or whatever the trackers call it really hard to achieve because for me it can take days or longer to sometimes reach a 1.0 share ratio outside of some specific cases. It doesn't help either that people seem to often be purged or kicked from private trackers if they don't meet certain standards or aren't active enough and then they'll have to go through the whole rigorous interview process again or have to start from scratch with working their way up from trackers like RED.
Q2: What makes a torrenting site safe / unsafe?
I saw some stuff recently about how 1337x isn't safe anymore because of some malicious game torrent being posted from some person connected to the owner of the site. I personally do not pirate games often (I've only done it once and I mainly just pirate movies and shows) and so I do not really know what makes a torrent site safe/unsafe for people to torrent from as I thought regardless of site, unless its from one specific trusted group like fitgirl, that there was always a risk of downloading malware and so you had to be really careful of what torrents they download and make sure that what they downloaded wasn't malware either by checking things like seed counts or reviews or whatever (never had to do this so idk what the signs are). Do some sites just not have malware on them or what does it mean for a torrent site to be safe / unsafe.
I'll edit this post or comment if I have anymore questions but thank you for taking the time to actually read this.
A1: Yes, but it depends
I used to be someone who used to watch movies and tv shows on soap2day/fmovies/etc but once I tried watching a proper full release (Bluray encode, or even just a WEB release) I could never go back. If you have a good TV, and you want to maximise your watching experience, private trackers are easily the way to go. But it entirely depends on your needs.
Even with a slower upload speed, it's not impossible to keep a good ratio. As long as you have drive space to seed, you will get bonus points that you can use to keep your ratio positive. About being kicked, most sites are "one lifetime, one account" so you can't just restart from RED if you get in trouble. Ideally, don't get in trouble, stay off the forums except for recruitments, just keep a good ratio and don't fuck up.
A2: Depends on the content
For Movies and TV you generally don't need to care where you get it from. Even if the file is infected somehow, a competent video player will not allow whatever malicious code to be executed so you're good there
What you do need to worry about is for Games and Software. You are essentially running random .exe files that would even show up as a malicious file on VirusTotal if it's a cracked program that bypasses some subscription or premium purchase.
You said you don't download much games and when you do it's Fitgirl so you're good there. Fitgirl is a trusted releaser and as long as you use fitgirl-repacks.site you won't have an issue (double check the hashes anyway, fitgirl releases include a program that does it for you). It is true 1337x had that problem recently with the EMPRESS release for Baldur's Gate 3 that included a Bitcoin miner (apparently EMPRESS was not responsible for it, and someone else had reposted it including the malware).
If you do download games, the best tracker is GazelleGamesNetwork (GGn) and you should consider finding a way in if you want to play more games at some point. Releases there are thoroughly checked and the staff are very careful. People find out very quickly if something is questionable and will not hesitate to call it out so it can be considered safe.
As for software, it's tough because there is no big trusted private tracker for cracked programs for Windows. Rutracker is what I usually recommend, it's semi-private and is atleast better than 1337x or TPB (try not to use those anymore). RuTracker also has m0nkrus releases, just translate the comments and see if anything seems off about it.