The Cirrus meets all of the FAR Part 23 certification requirements. It is
Not approved for spins like every other aircraft of its class, however aircraft not approved for spins still have to demonstrate they can be recovered from a one turn spin with average technique.
I think Cirrus was smart. They realized the only way to ensure the aircraft would get the benefits of the chute was to make it non optional. If pilots had a choice, the luddite component of the pilot community (of which there are more than a few evident in this thread
)would not have bought it. Therefore it was included in the type certificate, making it mandatory.
I think one of the big fallacies of the argument about the Cirrus is all the electronic magic makes it "Easy". I could not disagree more. To fully utiltize the capability of its systems requires a lot of study and practice. It represents a significant amount of effort, however the payoff, particularly in the latest Garmin Perspective fit, is situational awareness and navigational accuracy that makes a mid 1990's Airbus cockpit look stone age.
Too many Cirrus pilots are not making the effort to learn the avionics and end up in a technology assisted accident.