It is an inherently risky science even with technology advances. NASA has the advantage of decades of trial and error but even then, they still lose some on the pad.
Sorry, but that's just a ridiculous excuse, and it's not even true.
This is the
second rocket that SpaceX has blown up this year. The first one (actually, in June 2015) would have been caught by a decent QA process, and I'm betting that this one would, too.
And just take a moment to wonder why SpaceX hasn't taken advantage of all that "trial and error" (which it hasn't been for 40 years!!!). Well, it's because they think they don't need all the knowledge that NASA, ULA, and other launch providers have accumulated over decades of rocket launches.
SpaceX apparently believes that all of the levels of QA and stuff that the other guys do, just adds cost without adding any benefit.
They're a half-assed organization, and unless they get over this "we're smarter than the other guys" mentality they're going to be in trouble.