It will be far more interesting to show a model of how to have a successful retirement with more or less "normal" financial disasters, such as not making enough

It will be far more interesting to show a model of how to have a successful retirement with more or less "normal" financial disasters, such as not making enough money to save in a high-COL area, losing your job in your 40s or later, followed by one to two years of unemployment, and then the replacement job pays a fraction of what you made before. There are other financial disasters, such as divorce or a major medical problem, that don't have to lead to bankruptcy, just a serious financial hit. Or even a model of what we have today, where people don't make enough money to save for retirement given the high COL.