Prior to the Essendon accident, I think that if you asked any sane person in the industry which was the greater risk if an aircraft sufferred an engine failure on takeoff from RWY17: the DFO or the residential housing south of the RWY, the response would have been a unanimous "residential housing".
We now have an aircraft that has turned left after takeoff and hit the DFO. We don't yet know whether this was an intentional action by the pilot to find a green field, or a freeway, or anything but houses to put down on, or whether the aircraft just yawed left because it was out of control. We may never know.
But when we wake up tomorrow morning, and ask ourselves the same question, what will be the answer, the residential housing or the DFO?