You state:
now, there have been times where an evacuation wasn't done and people died (airtours/british)...but that was after a catostrophic uncontained engine failure and a rejected takeoff.
An evacuation was carried out as promptly as possible. See this report here:
ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-236 G-BGJL Manchester International Airport (MAN)
I quote from that text:
At 25 seconds past the 'thud' (and 20 seconds before the aircraft stopped) the crew decided to evacuate via the starboard side. The 737 was decelerating through 36 knots then and the captain warned the cabin crew about the evacuation six seconds later.
Regards
Exeng