This incident is an easy one for us on this forum to critique. Look at this from another perspective, most people do not plan to be in a wilderness situation while driving down the highway and seldom foresee cicumstances to get out of control and compound. Many people depend on cell phones and fail to reailize they just seldom work off the beaten path, that may change someday, but I doubt it is finacially viable for cell phone carriers to put up towers where few travellers go.
It is real easy to go from a comfortable road trip to being stranded, even on an Interstate in a snowstorm you can be off the road, injured or stuck for many hours, in very short order. Having some items to help you stay warm, hydrated and safe does not take much planning, but it does take execution and truly few people are ready to cope with much outside their comfort zone. They just don't see it happening to them.
I can also understand what motivated Mr. Kim to take the risk of going for help, he had a wife and 2 beautiful children and in concern for their safety he made a decision to take a larger risk himself to bring help to his family. I truly pray that was not a fatal decision and Mr. Kim is found alive and well. He did a very brave thing regardless of "what he should have done". He was doing what he felt he must. I admire that and understand his decision, whether I agree with it or not.
Having said all that, this again brings to mind that all of us in the know on these matters, should share our knowledge with anyone we can to prevent this from happening again, if we only reach one person, that is progress.
PLB's are great but how many people are willing to invest that much money on something they foresee no real need for? GPS is a better investment in my eyes, just because it has a daily return on the investment. It will not get you rescued, it will keep you from getting lost on the wrong road. Which brings another aspect to mind, when is a road the wrong road? Why close a road because you don't want to plow it? Why not mark it closed to keep people from using it during the winter?
I can understand a person who regularly travels wild country or flys in a personal aircraft having interest in buying a PLB. The occasional highway driver just doesn't see the need, if they even know there is such a thing as a PLB.
I ramble, sorry. Let us all hope and pray for Mr. Kim, he deserves our support.