Deactivating this optional feature is somehow worse than buying a car without such feature in the first place? The latter is neither illegal nor immoral.
The safety driver had an actual job to do, he wasn't there "instead" of automatic emergency braking - which is not certified for driverless operation btw. But he was distracted with a phone instead of looking at the road.
The American legal system places much more emphasis on acts you may have committed than omissions, and tends to avoid compelling action.
So yes, in an American court, disabling a proven safety feature is significantly worse than simply purchasing a vehicle without the feature.
The safety driver failed at their job, but the NTSB clearly lays significant blame for that failure on Uber, who should know well that humans are poorly suited to monitoring automated systems, and committed acts and omissions that increased the likelihood of an accident.
The safety driver had an actual job to do, he wasn't there "instead" of automatic emergency braking - which is not certified for driverless operation btw. But he was distracted with a phone instead of looking at the road.
The halo effect here is unreal.