a prominent feature of my training was pre flight checks. It was drilled into me to start at the glider to check the cells for tears, follow the lines to the webbing & go over the harness, reserve & so on. It's certainly an observable thing to become blasé after hundreds of hours of flying when you take into account that an average pilot in the UK for example contending with crappy weather & a full time job might rack up in the order of thirty or so hours a year. Similarly not looking to excuse the HG pilot - if you're taking punters for rides, then the responsibility is elevated but in the end we are all fallible.