I'd imagine this 'obvious' deficiency was picked up long before the 'five hours before sailing' inspection.
During design maybe? Seems like a good time to raise such fundamental 'sea worthiness' issues!

Reminds me of something, aahh yes, designers health and safety considerations, that's it!

I think I am correct in saying that the BOT Regs in force at the time specified a minimum of 16 lifeboats not the 20 carried by the Titanic. So, one point of view could be that it already had 25% above the legal minimum required. The Inspector's opinion to provide even more was, therefore, significantly above what was considered acceptable BEFORE the disaster. In other words it could quite easily have been seen as an over-cautious approach which might well have impacted his relationship with his employers and the White Star Company. I am not at all surprised that a single Inspector would have felt his opinion likely to receive a harsh welcome especially in Edwardian society.

The facts of history, and that the Regs were undoubtedly overdue a revision, are only available in hindsight and there is a risk that we write history from a modern perspective.
We have the facts that the designers believed they had built an unsinkable ship and one which would not in any case sink quickly. They appear to have agreed the number of boats based on likely failure scenarios and rescue plans. There is the view on record that if the SS Californian had responded to the Titanic's distress calls then the lifeboats would have been adequate to ferry the passengers to safety as planned. We also have the accepted operational practice that ice held little danger for the larger powered vessels.
These design beliefs would have driven all their judgments and decisions during the project and beyond until the disaster occurred. In such an environment it is almost impossible to imagine that a single opinion from one Inspector would/should ever have been considered valid.

So, whilst I do not attempt to justify the tragic consequences of their decisions I nonetheless suggest that it was a far more complex situation than the article and some comments here suggest.

p48

Like everything else in this game..... 'you're alright, until you're not'