No- even cracking at altitude will not damage the integrity of the windscreen. I have never heard of an incident of screen failure causing pressurisation loss endangering the aircraft. I exclude my friend Tim's attempt to fly out through the front window of a 1-11, but that was a maintenance error causing total loss of the screen.
No passenger would have noticed the Jet2 incident. It may have startled the pilots, but bangs happen all the time on aeroplanes- doors slamming, things dropped in the galley.
Last sentence is nonsense. Aeroplanes stop climbing all the time with ATC clearances. It is not that often you get clearance all the way up in one go without stopping at some stage.
Many pilots experience screen failure like this. I have myself. The consequences are minor- usually a speed restriction of 250kts below 10,000'. It's actually less endangering than losing a car screen. These things are usually about 2" thick made up of many layers, with at least 2 load bearing on their own. One breaking will not take out another layer. That is why spectacularising this is a little annoying!