I think the point is that there might be a bunch of independent bad guys, but there is only one "you". You're not allowed to make a mistake, ever. Ten bad guys could get caught, but if the 11th breaks in, you lose. They only need to get lucky once.
For sure any red team needs a blue game if only from other red teams. Red team is still advantaged in this regard by blue team’s relatively lit up profile.
Blue team: every time
Red team: once