It boils down to risk.
Does the veteran bushpilot know better than the flight ops inspectorate department?
Bit of both really, the bush pilot eats sleeps and flies his job day in day out and gets a "feel" for his work and associated risks. Leaving a cab running is 2nd nature.
The inspectorate making the rules see it from outside of this bubble and look at the risk inherent in that bush pilots job and regulates accordingly. Neither are right or wrong in each and every case.
BUT.
The wheel stops spinning when something goes very badly wrong and if it so happens to kill or maim an innocent bystander, then thats where the rules come in I guess - to protect the public.
Go ahead and kill yourself - no-one really cares, especially if you have no family but often it's the case where the "operator" has a conflict of interest and puts to one side this risk to achieve the operational outcome - often no consideration for others, just self. In that case - no one really cares and we say goodbye to another darwin member.
IF one was to stop for a second and count the emotional, financial and operational cost of an accident happening, leaving a cab running would never be an option but time is money, people cost money and so to hell with certain rules - too much bother, I guess.
As they say, if you think applying the rules costs money - try having an accident
