you don't have to be Chuck Yeager
TD, even he belled the cat on one occasion, wrote off a perfectly good aircraft, and very nearly lost his life because his instrument skills were not up to the task in hand.
suggesting that nobody could have survived an instrument failure
I don't think anyone is suggesting that, what they are suggesting is it's another gotcha that has befallen others, and a possibility for those now living to fall into the same trap.