With the submarine story, it's like a film scenario. Every detail is something unusual, and not tragic in itself. Well, depends on who you ask. There are many people who think billionaires existing is a very real tragedy, and rightly so, but I digress.
With billionaires in a comic-book-supervillain submarine lost on their way to see the Titanic wreck, you can laugh at the $30 controller, or wonder where their brains were, or if anybody looked at their financials because this also would work as a movie scenario where 4 billionaires pay someone to disappear them because they didn't pay taxes or something.
Refugee boat sinking is actual tragedy, with the added bonus of the entire western world having some level of guilt in creating. When the average, empathy having person hears about it, they feel complex emotions from sadness to guilty conscience for casually hearing about it from the comfort of their couch... It's difficult to deal with.
Kantiberl