FL - as it happens, yes I do think it is different.
If I make a mistake, someone will lose money. I may lose my job over it, if it is serious enough.
If a commercial pilot makes a mistake there is a risk that someone will lose their life.
The fact that there appears - to an outside at least - to be a culture of 'no no, better not say anything for fear of hurting my career prospects' in the airline industry is a cause for concern. Let us, for the sake of argument, suppose that smoking on the flight deck is a relatively minor infraction (and for the record I do not think it is); if the public at large become aware that certain flight crew can breach such minor regulations and break the law whenever they, in their infinite wisdom, think it appropriate to do so what confidence can the public have that flight crew won't go around breaching more important regulations? Sticking rigidly to SIDs, for example, or not drinking within the 8 hour 'bottle to throttle' window.
The fact is that those who light up in the cockpit aren't Dan Dare types who with a wink and a slap of the thigh can say 'to hell with the book, I'm going to do it my way!' and run off to defend God and the American Way coming back to a hero's welcome. They are professional pilots who are breaking the law and endangering their aircraft and the lives of those in it and under it. But the fact that there are those of you out there with commercial licences who say either 'leave well alone, or who knows what might happen to your career prospects,' or even worse 'leave well alone, you miserable tree huggers,' frankly astonishes me.