Just an analogy here, my neighbour , when he decides to drive to the casino, never wears his seat belt.
Both of these choices are his ( although the seat belt is compulsory ) I am just trying to show his mentality here.
He has never been killed yet in 50 years of driving without a seat belt. If asked about it he might well say " I heard of someone who had a crash and was thrown out of the burning car , and survived because he wasn't wearing a seat belt " There are a few variations of this.
The point is, if there was a forum for newcomers to learn about driving, should we be saying " don't worry about wearing a seat belt, I know someone who has got away with it for 50 years ! " ?
Another point is, wouldnt at least one LED manufacturer jump on the bandwagon and say " you don't need a resistor with our LEDs " and sell more ? Perhaps they know something, being manufacturers.