HC
I think this is a very good question and I was thinking along similar lines. All this talk of letting down using the SAR modes, radar to avoid obstacles, perhaps NVGs, is all very well when saving lives but when I was CTC on the L2 fleet I did detect an element whereby this mode of flying became normal to the crews. That sort of flying is significantly more dangerous than conventional public transport IFR flying.
That is precisely why SAR was a professional specialism in my time in the RAF (1970-99). We practiced for it every shift. It was not an 'add on' to 'conventional public transport IFR flying'. I know of NO RAF CFIT during my twenty two years of RAFSAR.