The saucer section also has its own shields too, that would help protect it against it from a blast. I think it depends on time though, in the time loop episode, they needed to get off the enterprise in a hurry so Picard told everyone to get to the escape pods, cause the enterprise was about to explode. I would rather take my chances in a pod then on a ship thats about to explode, but if I had the time I would much rather be on the saucer section with shields, long range communition, impulse engines and phasers just in case.
They had the time to evacuate everyone to the saucer section, the saucer section had shields, yea maybe the escape pods would have gotten clear, but I would rather be on the saucer. I would imagine in any emergancy situation I would imagine they would try to move everyone to the middle of the saucer for maximum protection.