While some posters have named various supposedly more reputable airlines to claim that EK et al in the ME were deliberately recklessly endangering your lives because they are penny pinchers...do you include LH, KLM, AF in the same category? SQ?
Plenty of first class airlines who's safety culture no-one would doubt were flying those routes, (ok some may not include AF in that category...) so it's not just a ME thing. If LH and KLM thought it was good to me, that suggests to me the level of risk wasn't well known rather than reckless negligence.
I'm not saying that means it's OK, just the way it's being used to bash these airlines by suggesting only shoddy operators who don't value safety properly were doing this.