> Yet I’m sure you understand “it has never happened to me” isn’t synonymous with “it never happens”.

No, but it's a relevant data point that allows you to counterbalance possible sampling bias.

If everyone tells you people are poisoning halloween candy all the time, but no one within your direct experience encounters it, you should investigate possible sampling bias. Perhaps you are in a privileged context that avoids poison halloween candy, so the sampling bias is in your local environment. Or perhaps such stories easily go viral, so the sampling bias is in people's tendency to share sensational stories. Either way, you have something to watch for.

Relying on multiple weakly-correlated information channels is a good way to hedge yourself against dysfunction in any one of those channels.