I too don't like gloves but recently had so many fingers and thumbs spiked by raspberry, eggplants and citrus that I have to be more careful. Sometimes with gloves the tip just breaks off so it's hard to remove them.
Anyhow with scotch thistles or giant devil's fig (which has nasty curved thorns n the stem and back of leaves, I dig as much soil away from the stem base as I can with a rock or stick, then as you observe, pull it out carefully.
If they r big (2" thick stems) and have already dropped dead leaves (which still have spines), I use secateurs to cut off most of each leaf so it drops into a plastic shopping bag or box, then starting at the top, gradually chop small pieces of the stem. If the secateurs are not super sharp u can use them to drop the bits into the bag. Also to pick up and drop in the dead leaves. Then leave a stem stump of a few inches and get some thing to dig around, and the thickest gloves u have to put it out. If it already is seeding, use the sharpest secateurs u have and try and make it fall into a plastic container without any of it blowing away. I agree it is essential to stop the spread. I pulled out heaps from my son's neighbour's place so he wouldn't have thousands. I asked and they were happy for me to do it.
If they are on a footpath where you are walking your dog, use a branch or whatever u can to bash them to one side then dig around and try and lever it out or if too thick bash the stem near the bottom so it won't grow till u come back and remove it.