If reasonably safe is not safe enough, what is?
Unreasonably safe?
IMHO you are wrong to feel that way. If safety is the only concern then no aircraft would ever leave the stand. It is all a compromise.
If you don't like "reasonably" safe, how about "acceptably" safe. They seem about the same to me.
The point is not that I can do without ATC. It is that VFR flying can well do without ATC. It is only when IFR traffic enters the picture that ATC becomes necessary.
Controlled airspace is imposed upon those who fly VFR, by our rulers, for the benefit of IFR CAT. Whilst it may be agreed that it is necessary to suffer this imposition in order to gain the benefits given by air travel, it is a bit rich to suggest that those whose freedoms have been expropriated by the airlines for their own commercial gain, should have to pay the costs arising therefrom.