The alternative is to have a bunch of government boot lickers manadate that activity X is off limits for either certain time periods, or always.
For young healthy people, climbing Mt. Hood is the challenge, but it could be equally life challenging to decide you want to walk 20 blocks when you're 90 years old. If you go down then, you're going to consume the resources of society, and I'd posit that the number of elderly who require recovery from trips to the park or walks around the block FAR exceed the number who require recovery from climbing expeditions.
Having "no public rescue" periods would probably also diminish the number of failed expeditions too, because the perception that you will be rescued probably injects a certain amount of moral hazard insurance into the decision to attempt the activity...
Not a bad idea.
I agree - that's a good solution.