This entire episode reminds me of when American Airlines decided, in the 1980's, that 727s could economically power-back from gates, eliminating all but one ground crew member, tractors and tow-bars. The arithmetic proved that a 12 Million US manpower savings would only be offset by, on average, 9 million dollars worth of engine damage due to FOD, sand etc. Yay! 3 million fun tickets for management parties! And all for only one or two revenue engine failures. Pffft!
The idea that you can quantify public perception of carelessness did not work in 1984, and I'll bet that thirty years later it will only take a little bit more convincing before the travelling public demands responsible behaviour from airline management. If we still flew JT-8s this would already be apparent.