Yes. The term used to describe a safety-based requirement is “operational necessity”. But no reason to get hung up on verbiage; I think we agree on meaning.
As far as the curfew / noise abatement examples, I feel like those don’t necessarily apply here as that’ll be more of a business decision than a safety decision. You can either remove payload until you’re able to use the noise-abatement runway, or go full and pay the fine. Someone in the network ops center will make that decision. The pilots just tell them what’s safe and what isn’t. I’m talking more about circumstances that require judgement. For instance, maybe the takeoff data technically supports the use of the "normal"runway with the reported tailwind, but the crew observes gusts they feel are unreported, or they observe indications of possible windshear in the area etc. That crew is entirely authorized to insist on a different runway. Even if it’s inconvenient for ATC. Even if other crews make a different decision. We pay crews to use their judgement, and we take great pains to ensure they feel empowered to do so. No one will ever ask them to justify a decision made in the interest of safety, and ATC doesn’t have a say.