It's a trade-off. I'll probably have the feature on when I'm in the small plane (although the chance of it getting a signal post-incident is nearly zero, I imagine), but yeah, I don't think it's the appropriate trade-off for me on regularly-trafficked roads.

It sounds like the emergency features enable two-way communication, which is great, but I wonder if the procedures around that lead to more false positives. If they get an emergency signal and no further response, I suppose the appropriate assumption is to assume the worst, and send out responders. The PLB is unidirectional, so the procedures involve using the (regularly updated) contact info to see what the heck is likely going on. That'll get them to my cell phone (wouldn't have worked for you) and, failing that, to my emergency contacts -- and my parents (in my case) can reasonably say "try calling so-and-so, he should be with them", etc. Still takes responder time, but at least not a physical response until all other avenues are exhausted.