I love the pot holes in the road/pavement analogy.I agree wth everything you say,bye the bye,I'm also ex mil now civvy,but really can you truely say you 'always' followed procedures throughout your career?;
Fair play if you did,although I'd say you're in a tiny minority.
I like to think I was a safe engineer when on the tools - I look back on my career & if the truth be known,I've increased risk,'at the time' & for lots of different reasons-I thought it was the right thing to do,but I was wrong.Some of the stuff I did it makes my hair curl!
I've worked with some truely exceptional engineers over the years & I know they didn't always work to procedure.