Risking life in Myanmar, is it really?

Yes and no.

Yes you have to be aware that taking up a bus trip in rural places will expose you to >10 hrs of uneasy road and bus-mates smoking, chewing tobacco or getting travel sick. And that you will have no facilities for a decent toilet break, not unless you fancy sharing it with thousands of beetles and other bugs.

Yes  you need to be prepared for jumping up and down on a rail tracks thy remember English invasion in XIX century. 

Yes, you may consider a life threatening a trip on tip of a truck going though a hilly road that is actually not a road yet. It may become a road in the next 5 years or so. You need to trust the driver as going through these roads ever day with all that carriage of people and things has made them very skilled off road drivers. While in Western world men and women seek adrenaline through competing on inaccessible terrain in Burma every man and women who can drive must have those skills mattered in order to survive. There is no mercy on a convoy of various vehicles verbose must know the drill otherwise it will fail for each of them. So whether a motorbike, a four wheel drive or a truck driver all of them must be well accustomed and at ease with whatever road condition the day is going to bring.

Yes if you consider as threatening the endless checkpoints and fully armed soldiers along the way. You see trucks loaded with soldiers and military outposts actively engaged in getting more troops or strengthening their positions. 

My feeling however is swinging toward NO answer however.

Every  situation was somehow manageable and easy on me. At no point of felt dismissed or mistreated, to the contrary I encountered endless and steady flow of helpfulness and curiosity. The biggest surprise maybe being the maynma police with their posts labeled with 'How can we help you' directed towards the tourists obviously. Also train staff was always very kin and helpful, making me jump a huge queue or moving me to more comfortable sitting.

If you consider that there is no other world to Myanmar people other than what is in Maynmar because they cannot go abroad to get their benchmark, if you accept this and take control of your own safety by not agreeing to something which is not acceptable for you l, by your standards, you should be fine