Those were older boats with different hatches. Are you saying a modern lawman style hatch could be blown open, ripping the two latch handles off? I don't see it.
How do you know the exact type and manufacture of the hatches that might have been lost? I once had the pleasure of sail aboard Lynn Williams' DORA, which was eventually sold to Ted Turner and re-named TENACIOUS, and went on to win that infamous race. Although she was an "older boat", all those hatches and deck hardware looked pretty robust, to me... I would guess they were probably cast aluminum Bomars or similar, of a much higher quality than much of the crap I see being put on many boats today...
Sorry, I have no idea what you mean by a "lawman style" hatch, but many of the "modern" hatches I'm seeing on boats today make extensive use of plastic in their construction. I've had the plastic handle on a Lewmar Ocean Series hatch break off in my hand, for instance. I've also had the chintzy aluminum rivets that secure the catches for the dogs to the frame eventually corrode and fail, making the hatch impossible to secure until it was repaired. Are you saying such things can never happen offshore?
Or, are you saying the people at the MCA who drew up The Code of Practice for Small Sailing Vessels don't know what they're doing?
Or, are you saying it's not possible that a hatch simply might not have been secured properly? My Lewmar Oceans have the ability to be locked in a 'ventilation mode', where it is cracked slightly open to allow a slight degree of air passage, but still closed enough to prevent the ingress of rain. It certainly
appears that they are closed in such a position, but they are not. Are you saying it's not possible that an inattentive crewmember aboard might be mistaken in considering a hatch in such a mode to be 'secured'?
Or, are you saying that it's not possible to simply forget to properly secure a forward facing hatch? Consider the following scenario: A fully crewed boat is sailing, perhaps racing, downwind in sporty conditions. One of the off watch is sleeping in the vee berth, with the foredeck hatch cracked open slightly for a bit of much needed fresh air, permissible in this case as the deck is staying dry. He's awakened in the middle of the night by the cry of MAN OVERBOARD - All Hands on Deck! In his struggle to fully awaken and begin his urgent scramble to get topside, he forgets to secure the hatch...
Are you saying that after the boat has been turned back upwind to recover the MOB, and is now stuffing the bow into short period 6-8 foot seas, that the several tons of seawater that might sweep the deck at 20+ knots would not possess the force necessary to lift the forward edge of an unsecured hatch, and invert it with sufficient violence to break its crappy plastic hinges?
Or, are you saying that in such a scenario, an unsecured aft-facing hatch is just as likely to be broken free as one facing forward?
Unlikely, perhaps - but I see lots of ways a forward-facing hatch might possibly be lost...