Thanks for responding, mswood.
Just to clarify, when I'm talking about teams being daring or putting themselves in danger, I'm referring to teams that are willing to make personal sacrifices that have real life consequences in order to stay in the race, like Uchenna & Joyce with the head-shaving, and teams like Brian & Greg who go, "To hell with safety. This is a race."
With the way the race is constructed now, and especially after doing things their own way happened to spectacularly blow up in both Tammy & Victor's and Brad & Victoria's faces in TAR14 Leg 3, I don't expect teams to take chances with flights because the upside is small and the downside is huge. I also don't expect production to allow sleep-deprived teams to drive themselves much anymore for insurance reasons.
If production now avoids casting potentially reckless teams in order to minimize insurance and other costs, then I'd prefer them doing what the TAR: Asia 3 producers did to their teams in their killer Leg 2.
I'm not trying to be sadistic when I say that moments like Margie collapsing at the mat in TAR14 are special moments. Production already dumped ESM; from some of the TAR14 interviews, they seem to be stirring the pot and starving racers also.
I don't understand why production doesn't seem to be willing to go all the way and try to completely break every team's mental and physical will. I'm not talking about a Mika & Canaan, Maria & Tiffany, or Joe & Heidi type of breakdown. I'm talking about a quasi-post-traumatic stress disorder state, like the TAR14 finale, where the final 3 teams were all in tears.
The new races will never be like the old races, but I think the show will be back on track if production makes the race an experience where all the losing teams are either psychologically damaged or carried off the race on a stretcher.