Tigs,
I think we can agree that crashes are a bad thing.
I'd also put it to you as a working hypothesis that the reason that we don't crash 300 RAF aircraft a year, as in the early 1950s, and that we don't have weekly airline crashes (which we would if we multiplied 1950s-1960s accidents rates by today's traffic) is that we learn from the accidents that did happen and the accidents that didn't.
And I'd also suggest that when I say "we" I mean everyone. Pilots. Engineers. Air show organizers. Government regulators. (Pilots HATED GPWS when it came out and look what it did for us.) And even - for verily I say unto you, a broken clock is right twice a day - journos. No one group can do it by themselves.
That's why ranting about "if you aren't a jet pilot, then STFU" is IMHO counterproductive. Yes, it does have a certain intimidating power on the surface. But in the end its the old argumentum ad hominem fallacy. If I say it, and Jacko says it, and Chuck Yeager says it, are the first two statements invalid but the third correct?
That's not to say that we should not respect each others' knowledge and experience. But don't shut down the debate.