The dragon is the "most" positional of the all the sicilian variations. When you ask yourself how to put my pieces so that they have the greatest potential and avoiding weakneses at the same time then you have the dragon set-up in front of you! (what does  the naidjorf's ..a6 to improve my piece play? and why has this to be more sound? I know the answer is more GM's play it. But have we understand really why?) 
  Kasparov said once that if you want to study the sicilian start with the dragon. All the sicilian themes,as the exchange sucrifise, are crystal clear in the dragon. As for the risky tactical game you mention i think that you study wrong variations. Try to understand the themes behind them, not the concrete moves. 

I've always avoided as White the yugoslav attack, since I thought it would have asked a lot of theoretical studying in an opening that you don't face often.

However I think I can't avoid playing it any longer.

So, since the best way to master it is to adopt dragon with Black myself  (not a terrible choice since I'm a Najdorf player) I have to start studying and choose a repertoire.
Any suggestion?