"As for your suggestion, is that going to apply to a lost Boy Scout troop? Or a few inexperienced high school kids? Or someone who was caught in weather gone awry despite all care and planning?"
Does the book you mention list cases of boy scouts and lost HS kids climbing MT. Hood in winter?
Not to my recollection, but over the years it's included many stories of Boy Scouts and high school & college kids getting into trouble.
Failed rapelling anchors; ridiculously inadequate winter clothing; failure to hydrate; lightening strikes. You name it.
Stuff happens. Should we ban both the hapless and the experienced from the outdoors, so there won't be anymore rescue expenses *BTW, what expenses are we talking about?)?
Anyway it's not even clear that the climbers on Mt. Hood have made any mistakes. For all we know they're sitting uncomfortably in their snow caves waiting for the weather to clear. That's no "failure" by any rational mountaineering standard, it's proper behavior.
Yeah, this is really looking stupid. They didn't have accesss to a weather report showing the storm coming in off the Pacific from 1,000 miles away? Then they leave a note at a Ranger shack saying they're "travelling light" on the ascent as the storm is approaches? It's like hearing of 3 "experienced fishermen" rowing a skiff out to sea before a hurricane. Something ain't right here.