When things are going well, so many feel like the person avoiding or mitigating risk is silly and dramatic, and the person running headfirst into that risk is brave and rational. Then, when something awful like this happens, it’s always, “No one could have predicted this tragedy!” and they learn nothing.
I don’t like this any more than you, but that isn’t what they’re saying. “To the extent that there is any risk…” is not an admission that there is risk. It’s a CYA statement that means “even if there was a risk we haven’t mentioned/anticipated, it would be outweighed by these benefits.” “There is no substantial risk” is also not an admission of risk; it means they rule out any risk which is “substantial” (in their subjective assessment), but no competently made proposal like this would ever say “there is no risk whatsoever of any kind” because, again, CYA.