The downsides of mounting the rim too low when the skin is new are 1) there is a lot more stress on the tuning lugs when the rim is low and the skin almost vertical at the flesh ring, causing your lugs and skin to wear out faster, 2) as the skin naturally stretches after a few years, it will have nowhere to go and 3) it allows you to develop bad technique and you will hurt yourself if you play anyone else's drum.
If you have good technique your hand should not contact the metal rim even if it is only a half inch down. Although I believe in ergonomics (changing the environment to fit the person), in this situation the solution to your problem is working on your technique, not changing the height of the rim. Dedicate ten minutes a day of your practice time to improving the way you hit your open tones, muff tones and closed slaps. Go for the prettiest sound, while keeping your wrist as neutral as possible at the time of contact, and your hand as flat (planar) as possible. Watch some of the masters play. Pedrito Martinez has one of the best hand techniques I have seen. Giovanni Hidalgo has outstanding hand technique as well, watch his tumbao in particular. Roman Diaz gets a really clean, pretty sound out of the drum. None of them come close to hitting their hands on the rims, which are less than an inch down on all of the drums.
Pedrito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-3Tl8_prsGiovanni (also watch Johnny Rodriguez bongo technique)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYDYipWfWpURoman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvqSfaGdL0UThis is hard at first but then becomes second nature and will greatly improve your ability to play for long periods without injury or pain. This has nothing to do with the so-called "comfort rims", that name and design are to sell drums to beginners who don't know how to hit a drum. Finding a good teacher would help a lot, where do you live?