This is my problem with the academic sphere of philosophy in general. In principle, I understand the need to eliminate extraneous variables to try to explore a fundamental concept- you can "but what about" anything to death if you don't stipulate to any conditions in a thought exercise.

But it never, ever ends up creating practical value. Of COURSE in real life the better thing is to find the solution where no one gets run over or put on the tracks in the first place.