F D B
I read what you wrote about ATC..I also read what you wrote about information gathering from other sources.
So at LAS - “Mayday” declared, including the fire word, all called on R/T. You are right, he didn’t specifically ask ATC if they could see flames but Lord, it’s hard to be perfect sometimes..
After the call the Captain isn’t sat on his backside doing nothing, he attempts to gather information by dispatching the relief F/O into the cabin, who sees what is going on and reports back .. on the basis of that information decision is made to evacuate.
Despite or due to all the above you effectively give the entire Airline a “fail” on the basis that according to you there is a pattern of information not being diligently gathered..quite how you know about all the times there are non-normal events on BA flights where information
is diligently gathered I don’t know.
Ultimately of course it is your opinion, however I think it is only fair to ask which perfect airline(s) you are prepared to fly on, so in future we can all carry out forensic analysis on their incident/accident reports.