An interesting discussion for sure! I'm a long way from FIRE, but in planning for a long, happy and well-funded retirement the example of recent history was flashing red in my mind, so I've been reading up on how to make the best of this type of situation.
There seem to be myriad articles on the topic, but you can pick almost any developed-world stock index and the 2008/9 peak to trough drop would be 40-60%. That's enough to make anybody's eyes water. The more important statistic though (for me at least), is how much the cash dividend payments fell during that time. I don't have time to go searching for loads of data now as my lunch break is almost up, but what I have shows the yield on the S&P 500 was 1.87% in Dec 2007, 3.24% in Dec 2008 and rose as high as 3.60% when the market bottomed out in March 2009.
So why is this important? Well, crudely, if the stock index you're invested in dropped by half from peak to trough and the dividend yield increased from 1.87% to 3.60% over the 15 month period, the reduction in cash dividend payments would have been less than 10%.
Haul me over the coals for this calculation if you like - it's rushed and guestimated. I also accept that you Americans seem to rely less on dividend income and more on capital appreciation for your total returns, but I think the principle stands. Provided I keep my sources of income sufficiently diverse, then I should be able to sit out whatever fluctuations in capital the market may endure.
I guess that means, in answer to your point Dr. Doom, no, I don't believe I would have been updating my CV (resume!).