Aircraft procedures aren't reasonable. Go and read an accident post-mortem sometime, they're gorgeous. They describe debugging with all the dials turned to eleven. Inspirational.

The reasons planes are so safe is because there are several "unreasonable" things about designing and maintaining aircraft that most engineers would think somewhere between unnecessary and ridiculous.

A lot can be learned from aerospace engineering and the systems engineering used to design air and space vehicles.

Also, a fair amount of the safety of civilian aircraft is because the aircraft owners don't get to skip critical processes, maintenance, etc. They have to answer to regulatory agencies, inspections, etc.

The US military polices itself, so important things can be made optional. They don't have to answer to the FAA on maintenance issues, for example.