People sometimes get out of deeply sunk in chokes too - its why in Olympic level judo some guys refuse to tap. Like I said, we have kids in judo who get choked out and are back in action five minutes later. People used to line up to be choked out by Gene Lebell (and got a t-shirt for it). You have time to consider what you're doing when being choked out, its not the reflex you're talking about (at least not for any serious grappler). The way out of a sunk in choke is exactly the same principle of the way out of losing consciousness because of strikes - you need your opponent to screw up. Except the risks if your opponent doesn't screw up are much smaller with chokes than with strikes.
The whole idea of not tapping to strikes (or getting back on the ice five minutes after being knocked out in hockey) was based on the medical theory that it takes years of regular concussions to do any brain damage, so getting hit in the head when already concussed was not a big deal. We now know that is not true, and many fighters are educated enough to read the papers and realize that the same concussion issues in the NHL and NFL apply to MMA as well, and so that chokes and locks are less dangerous than head strikes, so the first thing to tap to is strikes, and the last thing to tap to is chokes.
Some guys like Mir still believe the old medical opinions they learned growing up; but lots of other one know better. Its as simple as that.