Not PP, but I used to work for an automotive subcontractor company, and I've heard a few stories about fatal car accidents that lead to lawsuits, which proved that the car design was the reason for the accident, yet the car manufacturer just payed "damages" to the relatives (or settled out of court, maybe) and never bothered to change the design. Apparently, it was more expensive to reconfigure their production pipelines than pay for an occasional death.
That said, this is probably what any big enough company would do. So your point still stands, maybe car manufacturers are no different.
Except car manufacturers.