Some record breakers don't bother but those are always manned by one person as a private venture and still follow those rules as guidelines. They just don't bother with the formality. The challenger deep wasn't for example. No one balks at that because the people involved knew what they were doing and used pretty sound and tested engineering.

Protip: you can set dates on a Google search to avoid recent news when trying to look up historical information.

Problem with the norms is it's harder to fit five people in a proper sub than a cheap sub. He wanted to "innovate" (cut corners for profit and fame) not do things the right way