I agree completely--and I've got one of these odd allergies myself. My parents never demanded that the school impose restrictions on everyone else because of me. You know why? Such a thought never even crossed their minds. If someone had suggested it to them, they would have rejected it as unthinkable.
Things sure have changed since I was a kid. But the fact remains that it is my responsibility to read labels and ask about ingredients when I am in a restaurant. The responsibility of the food industry or anyone else ends with accurate disclosure. It's not their job to insulate me from my allergy when that means denying a perfectly legal class of foods to people who have a right to eat it.
I can't help but think that in the refining processes the allergens are concentrated in the product or byproducts to the degree that some reactions are to what are now lethal doses which would not have existed in nature.
For some, any (natural) concentration would be lethal, but I'd guess these are in the minority.
Also, are there any food specific additives used to preserve or process peanuts which would not have been present, say, 50 or 100 years ago?
Maybe there is a reaction to the additive or some product of interaction between the additive and a natural compound found in the food.
I wonder also, if trace amounts of agricultural chemicals which would ordinarily be undetectable in the raw product are concentrated in the finished products or byproducts, enough to produce a reaction anyway.
Maybe this is just perception brought about by the way these incidents are reported (or not), but it seems that it was far more normal years ago to have a milder reaction, (hives, some swelling, a rash, etc.), rather than a lethal reaction.