IMO, it won't help very much, and could potentially have some serious drawbacks.

First, who will be setting the minimum requirement? What one person considers an absolute minimum could be way too much for an ultralighter. I would hate to be required to carry anything unnecessary just because someoneelse thinks it's essential. There is no universal list of equipment that has to be carried by every person in every situation, even the "10 essentials" has some room for modification.

Second, just because you force someone to carry something, doesn't mean they'll know what to do with it in an emergency. You would think most people would be smart enough to figure it out on their own, but if they were then they probably wouldn't need someone telling them what to carry.

Third, I see a liability issue if someone still happens to get into trouble even with the mandatory minimum. With some of the outrageous stories that you read in the news lately, it wouldn't surprise me if someone tried to sue the NPS (or whoever is the governing agency) because the minimum requirements weren't enough to keep them alive in an extreme situation. That's why a lot of these requirements cater to the lowest common denominator, because of liability issues. By enforcing these types of rules, people tend to get complacent about their own responsibility because they assume someone else is taking responsibility for them.

No matter what, there will always be people who die out in the wilderness. Sometimes it's unavoidable accident, and sometimes it's just plain stupidity. Trying to force everyone to follow the same standards isn't going to help those that die from their own carelessness, all it does is limit the freedom of those that don't need help.