Um, passengers do benefit. They get from A to B in great safety and airlines deliver the product that they have been contracted by the passenger to deliver at a price they are willing to pay.
Airlines that are state run or state subsidised have an unfair advantage and provide poor value to taxpayers in their respective countries that have to bankroll bloated organisations or vanity projects. SQ is indeed a very good airline, however the government is a 55% shareholder.
You're entirely wrong about airlines not contributing to safety. Many airlines have made numerous safety improvements. To say it's all about new aircraft (I don't recall a statistic to prove that there's a direct correlation between aircraft age and the likelihood of a hull loss) and training is a little narrow minded.