I found that elders would often tailor their advice to be as conservative as possible, even if it didn't make sense. But that is how the organization would present itself, too. They strongly discouraged people from doing work that might benefit the military, for example, even if this work was not done directly for them. Better safe than sorry, was the approach that they wanted us to follow.
...unless you were a young JW man in Mexico, offering a bribe to military officials in order to get a military card illegally, even though that made you a member of the armed forces and first in line to be called to serve during a time of war. Or any of a number of other questionable approaches taken for the sake of convenience.