When I lost my front wheel, I was 12 and had not tightened the QR enough. About that time (mid 80s), I noticed the bikes at the local Schwinn shops had safety tabs on the axle that clipped into nubs on the inside of the fork blades. The result was that you could not remove the wheel without disengaging each of the safety tabs from the fork blades.

Are these still common? They would seem to solve bike companies’ fear of litigation since only removal or wanton disregard would render them ineffective.

But I really think we're missing the point. No one makes a QR, or in the case of my new VD wheel a 5mm allen wrench, that opens bottles of beer. I think there are several 15mm wrenches out there that can crack a brew. If that's not reason enough to eschew QRs, I don't know what is.