They way I look at it; Any gasket on an engine going bad is not the manufacturers responsibility unless it's under warranty. 3800 intake gaskets go all the time, way more than fires caused by valve cover gaskets. No recall for that? If you develop a rod knock because coolant was in the oil, you're out of luck. Now it so happens the VC gaskets go bad, I'd say not usually any earlier than the plastic intake gaskets, they're arguably both equally as badly designed. But the rod knock won't endanger your safety or property, a fire from the valve cover gasket will. So this is why GM is basically forced to do something to reduce the chance of a fire.
I mean, vc gaskets go bad on a lot of engines, 3800's might be one of the earliest ones but are also so mass produced, there are enough of these fires happening to do something about it. Replacing both valve cover gaskets would cost them so much money it's not funny, so they apparently had to try and remove a cover which may or may not increase the chance of said leaking oil to combust. Honestly the gasket will keep getting worse, enough that a fire is inevitable.
There are so many warning signs though, you will smell, and often see oil smoke long before a fire occurs. You may even see drips where you park. The things I see wrong with people's cars daily, yet they continue to drive is ridiculous. People drive on super worn out suspension parts, they break and cause an accident. Safety issue? Of course, but these are maintenance parts, and vc gaskets are not far behind. Not quite maintenance but, a gasket after all that will fail at some point. I don't think I've seen a vc gasket make it to 200k without seeping just a little, even on the best designed engines. I've personally seen a 3800 GP absolutely pour oil out of the gasket at like 140k, enough smoke to blind the driver in a smokescreen if driving slow enough. But no, that car came in for a running issue. (Bad maf sensor)
So yeah gm had bad quality gaskets but if people used common sense and maintained their vehicles like ALL vehicles need, this wouldn't happen. They go bad on almost every vehicle of the era, some just as early.
