I repeat, in real life ear drums have been burst by just such action.
I guess question has to be where does the the greatest risk lie?
Which is more likely? That a passenger or crew member bursts an eardrum or that someone is adversely affected by spending more time at a slightly higher altitude ?
It's not immediately obvious to me which is more likely but after thinking about it I think it's more likely that someone will suffer from a lack of oxygen. My reasoning is that I have dropped thousands of people out of aircraft who descend at about 10,000 fpm and I can't remember anyone bursting an eardrum, yet once a month or so someone on one of my flights requires oxygen because their body isn't coping with extended periods at 8000ft. So I think there is a higher chance of having passengers on board who would not cope with being at 12, 13 or 14,000ft, than of someone bursting an eardrum.
Does anyone have any examples or stats on burst eardrums during emergency descents?