Commercial helicopter operations invite the same abuses as any other commercial operation - pay lip service to the regulations which are often written allowing 'interpretation' and rely on operators to apply the standards the regulators would 'like' them to adhere to but don't actually mandate (light touch regulation is desired). Add a couple of other layers of 'supervision' to provide checks and balances which again are not properly regulated or audited (other than by a tick-box form) and you have a recipe for cowboy operations which look superficially to be professional aviation outfits but are actually exploiting the loopholes to provide a service to unwary customers which those in the know would deem 'unsafe'.