I wouldn't say it's a "freebie." and I wouldn't say "no questions asked."

The decision to evacuate is an easier one if you fully know and understand the status of your aircraft. For sure on fire. But, when there's doubt or incomplete information you may delay, or second guess yourself.

Most injuries occur during the evacuation itself. The idea is to expose the passengers to the least amount of risk.

Yes there will be questions asked in both scenarios: obvious need to evacuate, and not-so-obvious feeling of need to evacuate.

I do agree that it the area of risk mitigation it's an area that isn't going to be questioned for very long. You explain yourself, what you knew, what you didn't know and why you decided to use your Emergency Authority.

"I felt it that in interest of safety and an abundance of caution that I was compelled to order an evacuation as it was the safest and most prudent course of action with the information that I knew and had available and that I felt the decision to evacuate would expose my crew and passengers to the least amount of risk possible."

The world is full of crew room lawyers. We've got some actual bonafide ones at ALPA. They do a great job.