Here's the thing. The government likes to collect tax money. The idea that they would decide that it's in their best interest to force you to pay your taxes later rather than now doesn't make much sense to me. Because that's all the Traditional IRA to Roth IRA conversion does. It pre-pays taxes. In my mind, this isn't a loophole at all, but rather a specific design of the tax code that enables the government to collect their tax monies earlier than normal. So I guess this isn't a big concern of mine.
But even if you don't believe the above, there is still the 72(t) SEPP withdrawal method, to get your money out of your 401k/t-IRA penalty free. Most of us are focusing on the Roth Pipeline idea because it's more flexible and gives you more money to work with, as those substantially equal periodic payments are generally not enough to live on alone.
And finally, if both of those options are obliterated by a government that decides that your current tax money is unwanted, that "huge penalty" you mention is only 10%. That's only a few grand on a mustachian sized retirement budget, and should be fairly simple to come up by earning just a little extra from time to time in some manner.