While I do agree that the vast majority of accidents are not down to a few foot difference in stopping distances, braking is still a very important aspect of automobile safety. I'll give you an example. A good friend of mine had a CRX, until he crashed it a few weeks ago. One day we were heading to an autocross early in the morning and we were cruising relatively quickly on the empty highway. There was very very light traffic and they were going fast too, so don't think that we were speeding like maniacs. Some imbecile in a Grand Cherokee decided that it would be a great idea to ride the CRX's ass. The car weighed under 2000lbs and had racing brakes on it... it was definitely the wrong car to tailgate. At one point my buddy spotted a cruiser up ahead and hit the brakes. The numbnuts in the Jeep almost rear-ended the Honda and ended up getting pulled over because of it. Yes, he should have kept more distance between him and the CRX, but having good brakes would have prevented him from eating up the 3 feet of room he had in front of him and almost causing a serious wreck.