As the captain of the aircraft you can always so no but it may not go down well with the boss or bill payer in the back. This is still no excuse to go beyond the limits but it will always be a factor in the commercial market where sometimes money is tight.
We all like to get the job done but I believe in the corporate/commercial side of the industry getting the job done means bill payed, happy customer, possibly repeat business etc etc.
It's a tough way of looking at it but it happens and until helicopters become so cheap to operate that any tom dick or harry can afford to travel by them then we will always have people trying to earn a living having to fly in the **** sometimes to complete the job.
It's very sad what has happened but this will happen again and again unfortunately.