The public should continue to be allowed to choose to be passengers in vintage aircraft. However, the organizations offering such rides owe a level of safety resulting from even more diligence than a regular commercial carrier. Most vintage aircraft were never designed with passenger safety in mind, and certainly not to today's standards. It would be impossible to bring an airplane like a B-17 to be compliant with the passenger safety standards of today's Part 25 airplanes - but the public does not know this, and does not try to inform themselves. Thus it is the moral responsibility of the vintage airplane operator to go above and beyond in passenger briefing, and every safety effort possible to mitigate the design gaps from vintage ex military airplanes to what today's passenger thinks they're riding in.
Good maintenance is a reasonable expectation of any passenger, there should be no doubt about it in the case of vintage passenger carrying airplanes. And the pilot was also responsible for assuring maintenance compliance? Hmmm... I think that could be better arranged!