There’s another line to “it’s better to die than to look bad”: “but you can do both”
Naval Safety Center published (still does?) weekly “funnies” along the lines of “the senior officer was balancing on one foot from the top of a ladder with a chainsaw…” it was a reminder as you stepped past the warnings on your ladder that you could also make the “funnies”.
The somewhat brutal warning in that line is that aviation has enough pitfalls without adding stupid risks of your own creation.