This cracks me up too: The misconception that a law has no consequences if a regulator changes its "philosophy".
Try reading the terms of any contract of insurance that you hope will save your house if you are involved in an accident. Your contract of employment has an implied, if not express, compliance with law clause. Try telling a coroner that you didn't have to comply with the law because the regulator had a "philosophy". The content of the sick, expensive joke that is the ATSB's report on the ditching of NGA had nothing to do with the regulator's "philosophy".