Sunfish,
Imo he'd most likely agree with you about the present setup! His argument is about a professional CASA, which some may argue we had 30+ yrs ago. If you have read his piece on CBA you have the same situation as what you have said about judgement. I'd say his view of CBA is that it is nothing like your actuarial work, but bloody subjective and open to selective use of data etc.
No (FMEA), but have since looked it up. My guess is he would state that CBA is not on par with that.
I cannot help but feel you may not have read it completely. Why don't you try and contact him and get a better idea of where he stands, maybe you'll find you're a lot closer than you think. He doesn't come across to me as a closed minded idiot.