There are two issues here that i think are conflated.
1. The "double bind" problem where your company has an "Oh so Good" operations manual with all I's dotted and T's crossed, but an internal culture, perhaps of duty hours and time pressure and bullying, that encourages pilots to break the requirements of the operations manual, punishing those who don't, and rewarding those that do.
To put it another way, requiring absolute obedience to the Ops Manual but at the same time requiring absolute time keeping accuracy and punishing those who cannot achieve this for whatever reason, including adherence to the rules.
Under such circumstances, if you break the rules the company will hang you out to dry, pointing to their rules. Telling the judge you broke the rules in the interests of company profitability will not get you very far.
2. The "race to the bottom " issue where terms and conditions are being gradually squeezed, with the connivance of the regulators. This results in increasing workloads and fatigue and a gradual dumbing down, as the numbers of high quality people prepared to accept these working conditions decreases.
We will find out where the "bottom" is when not one, but four or five accidents in a relatively short period are found to have been caused by (1) combined with (2).