Stormy, it's been awhile since I watched that doco on the desert crash test, but I don't think they added anything to that 727- those stairs were standard fit on that model... they just modified it to allow deployment in flight (or was it removed altogether- need to watch again)
As long as the consumer wants low priced batteries and the companies turn a profit, it will be difficult to change anything. I too used to be guilty of buying spare camera batteries etc online and having them sent to me... without even thinking to ask the shipper how they sent them. After working in freight, I then understood the issues and risks involved. I've even reported seller to Ebay after they repeatedly refused to ship items to me safely or notify the actual contents of parcels (even after offering to pay extra costs) The key is education, sadly like most industries the almighty dollar wins and the average Joe consumer does not care about some poor freight crew who died while bringing their cheap
batteries from China....