I bet his lighter was a Bic.

Regarding the backpack issue, essentials for survival should obviously be on your person. Even if you are a pro, there are many ways you can become separated from a backpack. For examples, you fall in a river and need to start swimming to shore with speed; you fall down a ledge and need to lighten your load while you hold onto something; put your pack down for a second and get lost like the guy in the original post; etc.

I don’t see any upside to keeping all essentials in a backpack.