They've done the maths, all right. Because at the end of the day it all comes down to cost of insurance. That's what makes it affordable/unaffordable. And underwriters are very good at math. Very, very good.
Actual risk to human life doesn't actually come into play. You can always find people willing, more than willing, indeed training their entire life to get a job like this. Not just happy with the risk, but ecstatic about it. There is nothing more heroic than beating the odds and being better than everyone else. Especially in 'murica. And I write that in all seriousness as an American. Helicopter lineworker? Helicopter live line op's? Can't think of too many things that top that on the pinnacles of skill and daring. People are lining up for it, if you'll pardon the pun
About the only thing sexier than that is being a pilot for the 160th, but then people might actually be shooting at you!
Property damage doesn't matter, either. Ball up a few helicopters? Bang up some power lines? No problem, insurance will pay. Because again it's all about the insurance. Underwriters don't mind losses as long as they are making money. And they don't want to price themselves out of a lucrative market. And there's little danger to the public or risk of other property damage given how there's very little in and around most of these sort of power lines. So it's all very low visibility stuff, and accidents can actually happen without too much in the way of media exposure.
No doubt it's rough on the families of the pilots and lineworkers, but the families always say "They were doing something they loved."
Probably the only real sin is an accident that causes a power interruption, and thus interrupts the flow of public utility revenue.
It's a good bet that only way you are going to see twins in this job in America is if it becomes a regulatory requirement, because twins are likely to make the entire process unaffordable. Insurance rates will substantially increase given the much higher hull values involved, because it's probably not engine failures that are causing the vast majority of accidents. Power companies will abandon helicopters at that point and develop other technology.
And remember this is the real world, not military or public service. In the latter there is an infinite tank of money that allows things to be as safe as it is possible to be and still get the job done. Or maybe not get the job done! No insurance to be paid. Ball up that big twin? No problem, the taxpayers will get you another. The real world runs on a substantially different cost/risk basis. The economic "laws of physics" are different, very different! You can't expect the things you did or didn't do in the military to necessarily apply, no matter how "correct" you think they are.
Now if you want to talk about something really dangerous, how about night helicopter crop dusting?