I think the wartime study has limited applicability to GA operations because many GA maintenance operations are intended to extend the aircraft life far beyond the total life of a WWII aircraft.
On the other hand, it seems to me that continuous maintenance, with a yearly airworthiness inspection but no formal requirements in between works very well for the private owner. Things get caught quicker and it breeds a culture of owner responsibility. I think that It is that culture that really prevents maintenance related accidents.
A ‘down to earth’ example might be my based-in-Europe motorcycle, which is used only for long distance trips and is no different in this respect than many aircraft. It is old and has seen many hours, days, months, countries, miles etc both before and after I got it in 2006. The previous owner (who was incidentally a senior military office in charge of logistics 
) had frequent trouble with it, despite spending a lot of money on having things rebuilt on a kind of predetermined schedule. It was something of a joke among the group that it would be sure to break on every trip, causing delays etc. and accordingly I paid very little for it. Since I bought it, it has never had an issue that resulted in any delay whatsoever. It actually still breaks about the same amount, the difference is that I watch it, see little leaks or hear little noises early on and get it fixed before the next trip.
The private aircraft owner has, and I think should have, a very different relationship with his aircraft than a military force or flight school. Maintenance regulations should take that into account, in order to maximize their effect and minimize their negative impact.
FWIW.
Another safety aspect: at my flying school they had to make regular long trips through the highlands in order to get the service done. The financial implications of this must have been horrendous – using 3% of your 50 hours just to get to the maintainance facility and back. We’d often have good flying weather locally but find that the maintainence facility was fogged in and the hours were nearly up. Very frustrating (gather it’s now been fixed) and one of those ‘external pressure’ factors that could lead people into making flights they would have otherwise chosen to avoid. I imagine there must be similar issues for lots of flying schools without on-site maintainence facilities.
