I generally don't bother with these sort of threads as in the PPL flying world level of risk tolerance is basically a personal choice, and people are generally quite set in their ways and unreceptive to other opinions.
I am generally quite keen on the safety equipment, probably because in my flying background the potential consequences were drilled into us. Some have said this is risk averse, old fashioned, pretentious etc. I am happy to be averse to easily avoidable risks - it allows me to give full consideration to the unavoidable ones.
Many private pilots do not fully understand or consider the risks and perhaps make less safe choices as a result. A comment above mentioned using an immersion suit in the winter but not in the summer - the current 'summer' sea temperature off the UK will give you a survival time of about one hour. Having had a go at sea survival trainng I always wondered when bobbing about alone in the sea an indivdual would still be happy to have saved a few quid by not buying an imm suit, liferaft, etc.
For many the matter comes down to peer pressure and looking cool. Flying in flip flops, shorts and a nylon hawaiian shirt seems popular for some but makes me cringe. Burns definitely don't look cool. Leather gloves, perhaps the most contrversal item, may make the difference between being able to undo your harness to get out of a burning aircraft and staying in there. A minor injury during a walkaround on a Boeing last year made me wish I had been wearing RAF leather gloves at the time!
Dubbleyew Eights comments are the epitome of the opposite point of view, to put it politely! The suggestion that we want an emergency to occur and are let down if it doesn't is so silly that I need not comment on it further. His level of risk tolerance is his personal choice. However he may well get whacked one day by a situation that is perfectly surviveable for others with a more considered approach to risk. He is reliant on good luck - others ensure they can handle bad luck.