I've no issue if a RO gives out a few handy route tips before a race. But if he/she says nothing that's fine by me too. I certainly wouldn't take the view that the RO was somehow "liable" if the RO said nothing and I then got lost.
The Langdale Horseshoe is a good example of the wider point being debated. Should the RO warn people about the bad step? Or should runners have a look at the map and work out there is a way of avoiding it completely. I go another way down which is just as quick. I offset the fact that this seems a bit wimpy with a sense of satisfaction that I seem to be one of only a handful of runners who've discovered this easy alternative route. My heart will sink if the day arrives when the RO tells everyone at the start to go that way because it is "safer". To me that simply isn't fell-running as I know it to be.