Cash was not king during periods of hyperinflation in Germany (30s), Venezuela (ongoing), and many more. It is roughly as common as a stock market crash.
Good point. To help make such decisions, maybe one could also try to gauge the overall level of honesty, competence, and responsibility (edit: and strength given trends) of the sponsoring entity. (I have been in USD and varied bonds rather than stocks for a while now, partly due to general debt and overconfidence levels, and plan to revisit things, around August after current trends play out more.)