Cran: yep. I was in the snake river canyon with a guy who did it three times trying to take pictures. After the second time, I decided if he did it again I'd give him a ride. He didn't do it the fourth.
As you point out, the accident report would have said "loss of control due to turbulence in mountainous area".
I think there is a psychological tic at work here. We believe we can avoid CFIT, wires, clouds, and survive EOL. Just like when a guy dies of lung cancer, we all think "whew, he was a smoker, I'm not, I'll be ok"
But nobody thinks they can survive the 44 falling out of the sky for no reason. So that puts a whole different light on flying one of the things.
I think as long as you slow down in bad turbulence, they fall out of the sky because somebody bumps the damn center post. Its a lot more vulnerable than a joystick. And I feel better about flying them through that bit of psychological trickery.