Don't get me wrong, digestion is still close to my heart. For better or worse it can be an extreme power fantasy. The fantasy is literally just destroying someone (or inversely, being destroyed by someone)
Safe vore is more of an indirect display of power. Because there are no serious consequences (within the fantasy), it can be more nuanced.
And it might be more realistic in the sense that it mimics actual real life integration of vore. As in, you can't digest someone irl. You can pretend to, or you can simulate being eaten / eating someone. so anyway
here are some scenarios i thought of (which probably already exist, but there are no true original ideas):
a pred eating a prey just to prove that they can. And they could probably digest them too, if they wanted to. Maybe the pred is being disrespectful, by putting the prey in their stomach, treating them like nothing but food. You don't put people you look up to in your stomach, that's where your lunch goes. And maybe the pred has a sandwich after that, to drive the point home. The pred will let the prey out eventually, but the prey won't forget the embarrassment of being eaten
a prey who fantasises about being eaten, convinces their pred s/o to eat them. The pred is skeptical because they don't see the prey as food, and they don't want to eat them really. But the prey assures them that they don't need to be digested (even if they might want to be). It's enough for the pred to just pretend. The pred will swallow the prey, and then tell the prey about what a filling meal they were, and even if the prey knows that the pred isn't being genuine, they can still get lost in the fantasy of being eaten by their partner.
the classic 'we have to do vore because it's cold out' but make it that the two don't like each other. But the prey isn't suited for the weather, and they'd likely freeze if the pred doesn't eat them. And the pred is like ug fine. And if they get rescued they find the pred with a suspiciously full belly. And the rescuers are like:
'How could u? I know u didn't like them but still, why would u resort to eating them, it hasn't even been that long.'
But the pred says no, the prey is alive and spits them out. And everyone's like Aw you are so kind, you worked together for once. the end.
pred who just eats prey bc they are bored. Digesting is too time consuming, so they just eat the prey, have their fun, but release them before their body digests. The pred does it because it amuses them, it pleases their predatory instincts, they like to feel their food wriggling sometimes. and it's comforting. A recreational predator.
pred who is hired to eat people for money. But who isn't allowed to digest them for obvious reasons. Maybe they enjoy it, maybe it's just a job to them, likely a combination of the two. Especially since they make decent money off of it, they can pay for their student loans.