TORQUES STRIPE,
You point is very valid, "even if you are at 500 feet you can set yourself up again",
The issue here is to get these parameters, whatever the end up being, mandated, so the NHP can monitor the HPs performance against the parameters and apply a properly formulated intervention policy when things go wrong, which as you say, when at 500 feet, should result in a safe and benign recovery, as apposed to being very close to the sea and a very high state of arousal when jobby hits the fan.
The principles of the way we fly ARA, one flying, one formally monitoring, dramatically increases the potential for intervention, as apposed to "flying vissually" giving th NHP the impression that the HP is OK, until.....splash.
I wish the term "VMC at night" when over the sea was erased from all out text books. In my view, VMC conditions do not exist until the "Ball is Called" (the CTB).
This would re-inforce the concept that full IFR monitoring procedures are in place until the CTB (and possibly for a good while after).
Thanks for input.