I'm not going to disagree with your overall sentiments, but is this because they didn't have faith in the kicker or because they (in Lapos case moreso, it's pretty clear Burke didn't like Palardy) had so much faith in the defense that they preferred to try and pin teams deep?
The bigger concern is that the miss becomes a TD the other way. One of the worst decisions Lapo made was sending Palardy out for a 48 yarder into the wind at Canad Inns at the end of a half vs the Argos in 2010. Owens fielded the attempt at the 5 yard line and ran it back. Punting from inside your own 45 is not a good situation for pinning anybody (unless there is a significant wind). Punters don't practice shanking punts, they can't use their proper technique to hit that kick, and it has just as good of a chance of going into the endzone.
When you watch kickers in warmup or practice, most of them go out to 55-60 yards and hit kicks. They probably couldn't do it in a game against the rush, but you can see them do it off a stand. Palardy could barely get it to the posts from 45-50.
I really believe the season went the other way with that missed field goal. If that goes threw they win 4 or 5 more games that year.