SWA made a conscious choice many many years ago to save a ton of money by not embracing the technology many other airlines were using. It was a very smart choice and it did in fact save millions upon millions of dollars. At the time SWA was a relatively small airline serving a fairly small portion of the U.S. Fuel was extremely cheap and SWA did very little long haul flying. The auto-throttle mechanisms were cannibalized from the 300 fleet and sold on the open market. VNAV was disabled. Autobrakes were not used etc. These tools were simply not needed for the up and down Texas two step type of flying that was done at the time. Not only did the parts that were sold make money for the company, they saved a fortune in maintenance costs for not having to maintain equipment that was not necessary in their short haul operation.

Fast forward many years and the cost of fuel and a completely different route structure made these tools valuable for a now expensive commodity, fuel. SWA began using these fuel saving tools as they became necessary to a now very different type of flying being done by the company. Again it was the outside the box thinking that paid huge dividends. The plan did in fact save a lot of money for the type of flying that was done and worked very well for many years.

I have no idea what you are talking about on the safety front. SWA has an industry leading fatigue policy (excused from the flight with pay and no carpet dance guaranteed) and utilizes all other common safety practices standard at other carriers, ASAP-FDAP etc. The SWA safety record is exemplary, feel free to look up the statistical data at your leisure.