Anyway, as any advantage from the thin kerf is outweighed by the additional waste, I went out and bought a 10" ripping blade. The only one Home Depot had is still a thin kerf, but it appears to be within spec for my riving knife. Haven't been able to try it yet but hoping for the best.

I bought my tablesaw before riving knives were commonly available. It did come with a splitter, but as is common I found it awkward and constantly in the way, so as of today, I'm not exactly sure where that thing is.

But the safety aspects for riving knives are real. But my really nice thin-kerf Forrester 10" blade still has a kerf of about 1/8". When I am cutting 3/16" thick strips, this means that 40% of every board gets turned into sawdust. So I sought a more materially efficient blade.
The Freud Diablo 7.25" 24 tooth blade has a kerf of about 1/16". This means only 25% of the board goes on the compost heap. When I'm book matching strips and want to get as many strips out of one board as possible, this means that I get about 9 more strips from a nominal 12" wide board due to the thinner kerf.

But the lack of a riving knife was a safety issue and also caused other problems. So I decided to make a splitter. I made a panel of carbon fiber barely thinner than the kerf of my Freud Diablo blade and permanently mounted it in my zero-clearance insert.

This has worked very well. As shown, I've probably got over 15 boats worth of strips on it and it the results have been excellent.

I have been considering getting a new saw, for example a SawStop, but I am reluctant to go to an option that would waste more wood. The SawStop can not be used with a 7.25" diameter blade because the brake mechanism must be extremely close to the blade to function. The options are 10" or rabbet saw size (8"). They also say the saw should not be used with thin-kerf blades - Apparently they are more flexible and thus may continue to move after the brake mechanism have been activated.

The thinnest 10" blade I have found is made by Tenryu http://amzn.to/2eaWkXp It has 24 teeth, and a .079" (~5/64") kerf. It is a very nice blade, but may not be optimal for a SawStop do to the thin kerf incompatibility.

Even if you are not using a SawStop, you still have the problem of the riving knife being thicker than the blade. Personally, I would check to see if there is a replacement knife option that is thinner, or I would make my own.

Note that I rip my strips with a power stock feeder, which largely eliminates most of the safety concerns during strip production. I'm still thinking about getting a new saw, but haven't given my current set up and system I have not felt an urgent need to spend the money.