I understand your point Bob and, of course, it's possible to stuff anything up. But surely before-takeoff checks are the ones we do with the least pressure and with a high probability of getting correct. Is the small chance of a stuff-up really grounds for panning the righteous, even given the irrationality of an anonymous internet forum?
Invoking grace in an aviation context is a slippery slope. In the limit, you'd chuck away the check lists and say a prayer or two. Call me a heathen atheist but I have a suspicion this might not work so well.
I observe pilots who do next to no checks. If they crash and I don't, do I ascribe my longevity to grace? No, I think I'll go with the simplest explanation and just say I identified a few gotchas and had them fixed, reducing the probability of misfortune. If I crash, I accept that the probability of a crash is not zero, even with the best checks in the world.