Well J.O., that would be an interesting discussion I'm sure. I'd be representing the viewpoint that these "process control" centered programs work only as well as the people on front lines make them work.
The last airplane management and charter outfit I worked for was working on SMS compliance when the economic downturn sent it to bankruptcy. Ours would have probably been better than most since it was being done with the full participation of actual line pilots like me rather than just hiring it done from an outside agency or buying a canned SMS to be implemented in typical corporate top down fashion.
I'm not going to be very surprised by failures in SMS design and implementation being associated with aviation incidents and accidents. But I still find it distressing because it's really a failure of leadership.