I may have lost my way a little with this thread. I didn't realise one needed to be a management consultant working in the airline business to identify an obvious logical error. For the avoidance of doubt, I've never worked for an airline, either as an employee or a consultant. I actually rather doubt that safety, while undoubtedly important, is the single most important factor in the management thinking of airlines - if it were we wouldn't see so many of them operating so close to the minimum safety standards imposed by the relevant authorities (which are, of course, already extremely safe).
But the existence of a possible safety feature (such as the provision of smoke-hoods) that has not been implemented does not of itself prove that safety is not the number one priority (although it does demonstrate that safety is not the only priority, which should not surprise anyone). That is all I have been endeavouring to point out.