But I'd posit most such pilots who get themselves in trouble do so through sheer inexperience, as opposed to being cavalier.
There is no doubt about it. You are right. During my own flying training on Wirraways at Uranquinty NSW I got lost on my first solo cross-country flight of two hours. Heavy rain storms en route and the more I flew around them the worse was my map reading. Saw a railway line and followed it at 200 feet hoping it would lead me to a railway station with a name on its platform.
It did and the name was Harden and it wasn't on my map. Sod's Law said the name on my map was wrong. Turned out the name had been changed but not on the map we had been given. I don't know how but I finally got back to base just as a flare path was being laid out for my late arrival.
Reported to the CFI straight away and told him about flying down the railway line at 200 feet to get a pin-point. All was forgiven (we should not have been sent out in view of poor weather). However the CFI told me I would have been scrubbed if I had not admitted to low flying as he already had a report from some character on the ground who reported my low flying.