Motorcycles aren't invulnerable 3 ton steel tanks but the stats and anecdotes are deceptive. They're really not that bad if you're not a moron, even if you're mostly worried about other road users. The stat are wildly bimodal.

~30% of deaths involve drunk riding

~30% of deaths involve not wearing any helmet (let alone full face ECE 22.06 rated ones or any other gear at all)

~30% of deaths involve someone with no motorcycle licence.

These aren't all mutually exclusive obviously, rather the Venn diagram probably looks rather...circular.

The issue isn't so much everyone trying to kill you, you can fix a lot of the visibility issues and you have some additional options if someone is about to hit you. The problem is that two wheels make for a VERY dynamic system and you're managing two different brakes with weight shifting between two wheels based on your inputs. To that end ABS and TCS are absolutely huge, IIRC something like >60% safety improvement.

Tldr don't buy an old retro bike with no safety systems and ride it drunk without a license or gear, you'll continue to pad the numbers.

Isn’t this suggesting that the majority of motorbike deaths are licensed, sober, safety-geared riders?

I absolutely love statistics – be careful with inferrences, though.

This rider (I described above) was

~sober

~helmetted (fully faced)

~licensed