Early airlines are the closest comparison, and as design flaws and bad practice killed off crews and destroyed vehicles, they were regulated to heck and back and are better for it.

Early airlines were regulated but not to the point where it was basically in a gridlock. This was one of the issues with NASA, they became so risk averse because of the impact it had on their budget.

You don't but I do. People will be scared. And there is no competition at the moment, he plays alone. People might think it's too early, it's not worth it, etc.

In the US, the value of someone's life depends on their citizenship, so they can perhaps get around this problem by only crewing their rocket with non-Americans.

Don't Americans die in coal mines? Don't Americans die on construction cites. Don't pilots die in air travel accidents?

Nobody said Americans don't die too, just that the US values American lives much above other human lives. For really obvious illustrations of this fact see for instance the Irak war (pick one), or migrant deaths along the US - Mexico border.