Here's a thought about the dangers of screwing up the mixture.
1) There is nothing one can do when LOP that hurts the engine. Period.
2) There are any number of things one can do to harm the engine when ROP.
So, the question is: "Why are pilots comfortable with ROP mixtures, and seem to be resistant to/uncomfortable with LOP ops?
Maybe because they "have always done it that way" with little to no understanding of what they are doing? Maybe the fact that engine manufacturers were intellectually dishonest on the subject for a long time? (We've finally gotten CMI and Lycoming on board to agree with their own data.)
As the King of Siam noted, "'Tiz a puzzlement."