Why??? There are only 3 components that can fail in an unregulated supply- The transformer, the rectifier, and the filter caps. Regardless of what fails, the output voltage will drop,, so the equipment connected to the supply will be unaffected. This is NOT the case in a regulated supply:
The unreg supply I use for my linear idles at 16vdc, and drops to 14.3 vdc under load. The ripple (noise) is held to an acceptable level because my filter cap is 550,000 uf.
If you "cringe", it simply means that you don't really understand the diffenence between regulated and unregulated supplies.