"nobody is advocating that this should be compulsory". Maybe not in your company and I have understood all along that most contributors to this topic have that point of view.
However in my company there is one conspicuous pilot who has pushed for the introduction of helmets and please believe me that if ever my employers decide to get us all fitted with helmets (much more expensive than individually fitted earplugs), they will definitely instruct all of us to wear them.
Before that day might come, I intend to rant loudly and leave senior management in no doubt that the safety case for helmets in North Sea ops is by no means clear cut. Furthermore I would point out to everyone that in our kind of operations, the wearing of a helmet will be a distraction to some pilots and detrimental to flying safely.
When I used to fly forestry operations with underslung loads, I always wore a helmet and accepted the discomfort. It's simply a case of which risks are greater in which operations, as some of you have agreed.
The trouble is management pilots in my company are mostly limited in their flying experiences, knowing little other than the North Sea and if they get a bee in their bonnets about this they won't be likely to listen to the experience of others or common sense.
So if they intend to unilaterally push helmets on to us some day, I'll do whatever it takes to flag up their unilateral actions in advance by making as public a noise as I can for the opposite point of view.