Yes, it's been a tinderbox, but if you want to shift the blame away from PG&E, then you also have to shift the blame away from vagrants and arguably arsons.
It's a weird psychology that wants to pardon resourceful corporations while continuing to fault private citizens.
I spent half a decade working as a PG&E contractor for the Energy Savings Assistance Program (ESAP) provided by PG&E.
My job was to—at no cost to the occupant—install home weatherization measures into low-income housing. This ranges from new doors and seals to full attic, wall, and floor insulation. We provided this service to literally dozens of homes every working day of the year.
If PG&E fails, not only are all of the contractors out of jobs, but people in need will be denied a valuable service.
California provides a similar service (LiHEAP) with substantially less funding and far fewer benefits to the resident, and much of that funding has been eliminated in the past couple of years as I understand it.
The point is that issues aren’t generally as binary as you may think. PG&E isn’t a perfect company, but asserting that nobody would be harmed by their bankruptcy is a bit naive.
If I recall correctly, ESAP is a CPUC program that the utilities (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, etc) administrate, but the funding comes from the state. LiHEAP is a federally funded program. I worked as an auditor for CPUC energy savings programs, including ESAP - these are statewide programs and not specific to a given utility.
Dissolving PG&E wouldn't remove the CPUC program funding, nor would it remove the work. Contracts would need to be renegotiated, but whatever utility springs up in PG&E's place (publicly or privately owned) will still need to comply with the CPUC mandates for energy efficiency, and the state funding will continue, so that work will still happen.
It's a weird psychology that wants to pardon resourceful corporations while continuing to fault private citizens.