Precisely... and the only point to it all is the avoidance of litigation. That's a pretty sad state of affairs..
Unfortunately, risk management principles are often poorly taught, understood, or applied. Like anything, if it's not done properly then it's probably not worth doing.
Captain Sand Dune is on the money when he says:
Used properly it is actually reasonably useful
Interestingly, the RBAS has been running for eight years now - no fatalities or serious injuries that I'm aware of (happy to be corrected here if I'm wrong). Beginning in 2003, the first crash didn't even occur until 2010. If this race is inherently dangerous (it is!), then I respectfully suggest that there has been more than just dumb good luck at play. Perhaps the RBAR risk management plan has been pretty effective in mitigating the inherent risks eh?
- which after all, is the raison d'être of aviation risk management.