It makes no sense not to take every precaution possible to protect the crew. Even Evel Knievel had a parachute on his vehicle when he attempted his jump, and it saved him.
Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis was not a commercial airliner. It was designed for that specific flight, but it showed the way, and proved you could fly across the Atlantic without dyeing. The XPrize Rockets are not commercial spacecrafts. They are designed for their specific job, but when they succeed they will show the way for commercial passenger space flight. Of course if they all die in there attempt that won’t be good. A number of people died attempting to cross the Atlantic, but that didn’t stop those who followed from continuing the attempt. The same will be true of these X prize contestants, unless the squeamish get the government to stop them. The question is have we lost our nerve?
In the past I’ve always questioned whether the $10 million was enough to draw contestants. It seems like it was. There are several teams working on it now. They don’t care much that it won’t make them rich, their going try anyway. I wish them all good luck.