crab,
Offshore contracts for helicopter services are written by the clients (oil Companies) and dictate their requirements for the duration of the contract.
The tender that gets submitted will be in accordance with a stated requirement for a specified type or class of aircraft and things like flight following, HUMS, ADELT, GPWS etc that are not legally mandated will be included/excluded by the client at their will.
The operators then need to fulfill those requirements that are specified and still leave room for profit while being competetive in the bid. So the statement that the operators are "undercutting each other" is in my opinion a bit harsh, but accurate. After all, in order to get a job in the commercial world a company needs to be more economical than their opposition.
If it was truly about safety and if the oil workers were the number one priority like the oil companies all say they are then surely they would run their own aviation departments all over the oil patch and not just in places like Brunei and Australia (Esso).
You are fotunate to be in the military where you get all the toys you need and some you don't need for free from the taxpayers. Those same taxpayers need to buy their own toys AND pay for yours which makes margins a little tight at times.