> In all but the most serious crashes your face will not hit anything if the seat-belt fits well.
Great, then there's nothing to worry about... but if it is a serious crash, you'll wish you had an airbag to bounce off of rather than a hard steering column, dashboard and windshield.
Most people will never be in an airbag deploying crash in their lives. Of the minority that will very few will be in the kind of crash where a (frontal) airbag is what prevents them from serious harm.
If OEMs would just be less trigger happy with frontal airbag deployment then I'd be satisfied but the problem with that is that then you get the Concerned Mothers Association(TM) complaining about OEMs not doing everything they can to "save lives" and publicizing a few edge cases.
When I slammed into an oncoming left turning car at 50mph I was not wearing a seatbelt, my Subaru rolled completely over and the front airbag deployed. I left the accident with minor lacerations and no broken bones or major bruising. In 20 years of driving airbag equipped cars this has been my only experience of an airbag deployment. So far I'm a happy customer.
Turning an accident that would have left one only bruised from the seatbelt into one that also includes a broken nose and injuries to one's hands and arms is fairly common.
Great, then there's nothing to worry about... but if it is a serious crash, you'll wish you had an airbag to bounce off of rather than a hard steering column, dashboard and windshield.