But there are kitchens. And they are as safe as we know how to make them (in principle). But some that don't meet those standards are not allowed to operate.

Same with jets. And buildings. The home construction industry in Miami generally concluded that the codes required on houses there were too strict and expensive, so many did not comply. They could have argued that with the rules there wouldn't be houses.

Then Hugo came, and there were (no longer) houses. Plus, we had an expensive mess to clean up.

So just because something is not allowed to happen because it doesn't meet code doesn't mean that the code failed. Perhaps the code did exactly what it was supposed to do.