The reason we don't get "ripped apart" during these ripple events is simply that spacetime is so stiff that even absolutely monstrous amounts of gravitational e

The reason we don't get "ripped apart" during these ripple events is simply that spacetime is so stiff that even absolutely monstrous amounts of gravitational energy lead to only the tiniest distortions in spacetime geometry. A black-hole collision may put out more power in gravitational waves than the entire optical luminosity of the visible universe, and the result when it reaches us will result in a distortion of less than the diameter of a proton.