please forgive the somewhat strange 2 cent comment. If someone is caving properly and srt is being used correctly (lets say in both situations... properly= safety first). in a situation where cow tails are needed (srt for example) you should always have 2 attachments on the rope or "spit" when going over a belay point, either up or down.
I realize that many, myself included don't always do this (its only 3 meters high...I'm holding everyone up) a ff higher than 2 is the result of (in most all cases) cutting corners.
An uncontrolled fall into a cowtail is going to hurt, at least wake you up. after the adrenalin dissipates you usually realize what went wrong (if there was no "splat") and take measures to see that the uncontrolled fall is as short as possible in the future.
I remember reading somewhere test results of different types of knots against the ff and the results were somewhat scary.
starting at the point of a 34 kn (here a static rope 10.5 mm) the knot can and will reduce (depending on the knot)the overall tensile strength up to 35%.
Cavers being somewhat tightfisted and taking "piece of the 9 mm climbing rope thats been laying around since last year in the boot" with a overall tensile strength say 18 kn when it was new, forgetting the producers guaranty of 6 - 7 falls, reducing the overall tensile strength by 20% and what is left over for the uncontrolled fall and slam into the wall.....scary....
take into consideration loose knots, taping up the krab (glue and chemicals), rope ridden hard and put up wet 2 years running....... I think i'll take up a new sport....extreme sitting