... a year or so ago a guy deployed his chute over water when his engine failed, he broke his back on impact as the landing gear wasn't able to do what it was designed to do. The guy had the chance to glide to a nearby beach and carry out a forced landing yet thought hmm I'll deploy my chute without even considering landing the aircraft, ...
As Fuji Abound points out, this Cirrus pilot had a compression fracture of his lower back and was functional to exit the airplane and swim half-way to shore before intercepted by rescuers.
"Had the chance"? Maybe, but a pretty slim one. Radar returns show that he was in a rapid descent and accelerating. The last radar return was at 1600 feet at 190 knots descending about 3,000 fpm.
"Yet thought hmm I'll deploy my chute without even considering landing the aircraft"? This Cirrus pilot has written extensively about his thought process. Yes, he decided to deploy without considering to land. As he describes his situation, he lost consciousness for a while then awoke to discover that he was in a high-speed dive. He recovered beyond Vne but was not fully in control as he noticed that his right leg was numb and non-responsive. He immediately pulled the CAPS handle to deploy the parachute.
At least SNS3Guppy considers this a "possibly valid use." Tough critic.
Cheers
Rick