i do agree that these plb/mlu's offer a false sense of security. if im wearing it and brown stuff hits the whirly thing, then its my get out of jail free card right?
sure it will help in certain situations but this opens a big door for possibility of people going further than they should when conditions are bad etc... and expecting that they will get rescued.
i am a pilot and on aircraft we legally have to fly with an elt. thats fine and dandy but one thing i have learned over the years from reading accident reports and though all the aviation classes i have taken, the likely hood of rescuers (SAR, CAP, Law Enforcement...) is alot lower than one would expect and i believe it is very important to expect these things to actually NOT work and be conservative with youre actions.