A new thing to worry about: Debris from crashing drone hits two in Marblehead

He reported that he has flown the drone numerous times without ever having a negative experience

That's just it. You never have a "negative" experience - until you do. Stupid. You don't fly model aircraft over people.

If you go to an airfield where people have been flying model airplanes for decades, they are very safety conscious. There are flying stations where each pilot stands, usually only about 4 aircraft fly at once, and they don't fly over people or over the parking lot. They keep the aircraft in front of them. These guys know that Shit Happens. Yet, every yahoo that buys a UAV thinks technology will save their ass and think they can fly it anywhere. No, you can't because eventually, something will happen.

...I hate these things in populated areas

In this case, likely a toy.

In many cases, they are commissioned by universities, prep schools, corporate facilities, etc. to make promotional videos of their institutions. A friend of mine did one for a new building at Yale, which included some interior shots in long, wide corridors. When he was practicing with it, he got some great mid-fall shots of our neighborhood.

Of course, this is all much different from running a drone overhead of a large crowd of people.