While you’re right technically that we don’t see direct repercussions on particular regulators, I think the sentiment itself is close enough to true, because what would probably happen if they ever did rush something to market that caused a bunch of problems is that everyone would suddenly scream for essentially, and return to the extreme conservatism that we are used to seeing from them today.

To put it another way, public outcry, which seems to only stem from bad approvals and not bad denials/delays, will probably always push hard on any version of the FDA causing them to reach an equilibrium point which ends up surprisingly far on the conservative side of the scale. This sucks and I don’t know what to do about it besides the stupid solution I wish for of just having a smart, benevolent, powerful, and incorruptible monarch in charge of everything.

The FDA's cultural topor and designed bias against approval is almost entirely from the Thalidomide disaster.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21507989/

https://www.gvsu.edu/cms4/asset/F51281F0-00AF-E25A-5BF632E8D...