Thunderbird and security

[Phil]

Thank you for reading this.

I have a need for a Gmail account but I'm blocked from accessing it from 
Thunderbird. Google considers Thunderbird to be less secure that their 
own mail client but there is an option to allow for less secure mail 
clients. Of course Google dose not recommend this option.

Is accessing Gmail from Thunderbird really a security? I suspect that 
it's not.

-- 
Regards,
Phil