DFC:
That horror story sounds like a mixture of the inexcusable with the inept but unfortunately people do dumb and inept things in all aspects of life - it's not unique to this topic. During many journeys on the roads you are likely to notice someone doing something dumb or inept - but rarely it's ourselves! Strange that!
The call of "Bingo" is interesting as this is usually a pre-briefed "informational" fuel level rather than minimum fuel. There are a variety of formation R/T calls but none of them affect people outside the formation. If in doubt or urgency the sensible action, as always, is to use plain language.