HLB, your points are well made. The version I learned was "...for the guidance of wise men and the protection of fools". There are some interesting differences in the semantics which could be discussed over a beer or three.
One point I'd make is that many of us indeed consider that a regime "close" to the present rules is not a bad thing. We're not talking order-of-magnitude changes but the putative factors of (e.g.) 2 or 3 in maintenance scope and intervals (for some aircraft and operations) are significant in terms of keeping us flying.