Actually, if you read the stats on those deaths, it always seems to come down to a violation of the same basic rules.
The rules aren't the class.... if they were, you could show up, test on "Sheck's Rules", and get the card. Of course then there'd be this howl and scream from the agencies.
They are blatently hypocritical on this account - indeed, a lot of their bookwork is all about how to avoid dying (good), but they pointedly come back to, again and again, violations of those basic rules!
Gee, do 'ya think that maybe the little blue book that Sheck wrote might be the "real deal"? Even the agencies admit this in their own pontifications on the subject....
Sheck was a pioneer; he did things that people said were simply impossible and lived another day. Once, he found out that there really are limits to human endurance - pioneers often end up doing that.
That in no way diminishes his accompishments, some folks (none here in this thread - at least not yet!) pronouncements notwithstanding.