In every single one of those cases of reg failure, I am 100% certain that had the diver in question followed normal recreational safe diving practices, he/she would not have died. That's why we have the buddy system, and training (however inadequate) for dealing with sudden loss of air.
Look, I'm not arguing that keeping your reg in good condition is a bad idea, in fact, I'm probably a little neurotic about it. That's why I learned to work on my own gear, and most important, understand how it works so that I can interpret it's behavior. The thing I'm arguing is the LDS mantra "service your reg annually or you'll die." Given the state of affairs at my LDS (which I suspect is on the low end but not totally out of the ballpark) I'm pretty sure I would be at far greater risk if I let those guys touch my regs even once, not to mention every year.
Yeah, I know you said "every two years" and I appreciate the fact that you're bending the tradition a little. But it's still arbitrary and not related to actual objective evidence.
Further, the relationship between gear and safety is something that the whole dive industry uses OVER and OVER again to manipulate people into spending money and staying ignorant. I really resent this. I know you personally don't have that attitude, but I will rarely miss an opportunity to point it out in a thread, because I think it's such bull**** and so deeply ingrained into the dive gear culture.
