I forget, do we leave there or look for them because they didnt duck any ropes
This.
It's a fine line… What do we deem unprepared? Some skier falls through a snow-bridge on the shore into a creek… no ropes for self rescue a few meters down into the snowpack. His fault because he's unprepared, do we just leave him?
Sure it's not the same… but it's because we all know better. Sure the '10 essentials' are a good starting point, but who are we to say 'their fault, leave them'. Unless that is what we say 100% of the time…
props to the NSSAR, serious amount of time commitment for those folks.