There seems to be a significant attitude from ex-serving former aircrew that things like this would never have happened in their day, or even more interesting, that they knew about the weaknesses of the seat pan firing handle design years ago and were told to look out for it.
The seat pan firing handle modification is very simple. If the culture of yesteryear was so wonderful, the standards of safety so great, how did no one manage to recommend a modification, report the unsatisfactory nature of the equipment they were given to use, or otherwise put anything in writing so that any apparent knowledge was more than anecdotal?
Reviews after the RAFAT event were extensive, and widely regarded to have revealed new information, not previously understood. If there were any indication that such things were known years ago, it is a failing of the previous generations to document them properly which lead to this.
Rather than smugly state how you would never have done something similar, and that standards must surely have slipped in the intervening years, ask why you never thought to raise a F765X - if you can genuinely say you understood the problem then as it was later revealed.