The same concerns were expressed about electricity [1] when it was first invented. The usage of the electric chair for executions was sponsored by Edison Electric [2] (now GE) as a way to link rival alternating current (and specifically Westinghouse; Thomas Edison made sure that the first executions were conducted with Westinghouse machines) with death in the public's mind.
The solution wasn't to give up on electricity, it was to adopt basic safety precautions like step-down transformers to household voltage, elevated power lines, and insulated couplings.
The three-letter agencies haven't changed their minds. They still think that every computer being insecure makes us all more secure, and they will and they have acted to create this situation. That's the difference between now and a century ago. The govt back then didn't feel it was in their interest for electricity to be fundamentally unsafe for consumers. Until the agencies genuinely reverse course, inventions to promote safety can't move forward. We'd have basic safety now, as you describe, had room been made for it. But instead, they played past the edge - way past the edge, and have no profound regrets about that that I've heard.
I've never heard about this part of history before. I wonder if a dentist inventing the electric chair has something to do with why people don't like them :-)
The solution wasn't to give up on electricity, it was to adopt basic safety precautions like step-down transformers to household voltage, elevated power lines, and insulated couplings.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents#Safety_concern...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#The_Medico-Lega...