That is definitely not the free market at play. It's legislative body at play.

Engineers (real ones, not software) face consequences when their work falls apart prematurely. Doubly so when it kills someone. They lose their job, their license, and they can never work in the field again.

That's why it's rare for buildings to collapse. But software collapsing is just another Monday. At best the software firm will get fined when they kill someone, but the ICs will never be held responsible.

This only works when the barrier of entry to sue is low enough to be done and when the law is applied impartially without corruption with sanctions meaningful enough , potentially company-ending, to discourage them.

At the moment you remove one of these factors, free market becomes dangerous for the people living in it.

Safety factors account for uncertainty. Uncertainty the quality of materials, of workmanship, of unaccounted-for sources of error. Uncertainty in whether the maximum load in the spec will actually be followed.

Without a safety factor, that uncertainty means that, some of the time, some of your bridge will fall down