Yep - some good points there, and I hear what you are saying. Oil companies should certainly be the target audience here if you really want to effect change. They will always want the cheapest option, not necessarily the safest unfortunately. However I hear that some of their unions are actually trying to clamp down on the amount of time their employees spend in a heli at night. Ironically this could actually end up increasing the amount of night flying and decks we do. I suppose they see it as reducing the odds of an accident per person, per flight! Changing crewing patterns for the oil companies may be an option, but they will take a hell of a lot of convincing. The main problem will be, as they see it, that at the moment you have a day shift and a night shift. If you change the handover to midday, then everyone is effectively working day and night. Either midday till mid-night or vice-versa. There are rules against this I suspect. There are only so many nights you can work in a set period, sleep patterns etc etc, hence the current handover times. Unions would kick up a huge fuss if this was changed.
However all that being said - it is certainly a topic worth addressing to the oil companies. The S92 and 225 have made huge advancements in safety, especially at night and in poor weather. A good 4 axis AP allows you to fly all the way to MAPt and beyond fully coupled or do a fully coupled go-around (single engine if necessary), with a "go-around" button on the cyclic to activate if all starts going wrong. The aircraft still wont land itself though, but it can get you to a HOGE hover coupled pretty bloody close to the deck if need be.