Right up until someone takes the risk once too often and cocks it up, taking others with him.
Using the landing or take off excuse to get round the 500' rule in this case is just poor judgement - just pick a safer LS. The accident investigators have lots of records of people crashing in poor weather or into obstacles because they weren't prepared to walk or drive a few hundred yards.
Many people do what they think they can get away with in helicopters rather than what they should.