All this fuss because they were due back on Sunday and they didn't get back until Monday.

Change one detail and get them back on Sunday night and this wouldn't be a news story. It would be:

"How was your hike, Honey?"
"It was fun, Mom. We got lost for a while but we ran into somebody who told us which way to go."
"That's nice, I do hope you're not too tired for soccer practice tomorrow."

But its interesting to consider the situation when you are not in danger but you are overdue and know that all hell is breaking loose at home. If you know that SAR is probably being called out, do you activate the PLB to speed up the resolution of the process or might that cause SAR to assume that you're in even more danger and perhaps take extra risks to get to as soon as possible.

On the other hand, how much time do you give as a buffer? I don't want my wife to call SAR if I hiked a little slower than I anticipated, but if I break my leg on day 2 of a week long hike I don't want to wait an exra few days before they even start looking for me.

Looks like I need a PLB and a SPOT and a sat phone and perhaps a ham radio or two.