"No one in the developed world would want to finish a project faster and for less money if the cost has to be measured in human lives -- expect in extreme circumstances, like war."
Are you sure of that? If the pandemic brought me any surprising new insight, then it would be how big the part of any given population is with hundred thousands dying if it just inconveniences them a little less. It needs no war, it needs people not being able to go to the hairdresser for a month.
Your example deals with something completely different. This issue is more akin to the meatpacking workers' deaths, which were very high at some companies. It does generally does happen in extreme circumstances, or when some singularly evil engineer / executive / firm is in charge. Your typical person though remains not a psychopath.
Are you sure of that? If the pandemic brought me any surprising new insight, then it would be how big the part of any given population is with hundred thousands dying if it just inconveniences them a little less. It needs no war, it needs people not being able to go to the hairdresser for a month.