Your point that sometimes it's better to shoot for a mediocre solution to remedy a problem is valid; perfect being the enemy of the good and all. In this case,

Your point that sometimes it's better to shoot for a mediocre solution to remedy a problem is valid; perfect being the enemy of the good and all. In this case, though, it seems incredibly evident in hindsight that the trade-off here was not, in fact, the right call. The thing about bypassing safety valves is that you need to be really sure that you're not just creating a bomb that's going to blow up down the line. In the case of earthquake regulations that were passed in response to a history of earthquakes, it's pretty hard to reasonably assume that the trade-off would be worth it in the long term, hence the outrage.