Statistical literacy, or any literacy for that matter, requires hard work that is seen as a normal way of life. When machines do that hard work for us, it is no longer seen as a normal thing, but some unnecessary hard work (when we have cars, why walk 20 miles? And we have machines that do statistics).

Just like how those college kids saw my work as horrifically weird hard work, while I saw it as a normal thing.

My interpretation is how the risks (statistics) of those job functions are more known, people choose to avoid them. But the people that are-the-statistic don't necessarily agree with or understand those statistics.

For example, if OP is a coal miner that hasn't had health issues yet, they may choose to discount statistics that declare x% of coal miners have negative health outcomes.