I’ve seen both, and I’d still keep the thing that would literally keep me from dying close at hand considering I know it’s going to kill me.
My third paragraph describes "I've seen it" arguments. Guy didn't get sick when he was supposed to, what does he know if he'll get sick at all. The thing is in the medicine cabinet, if he had it he'd break it or lose it, if he gets sick he knows where to find it and he has family and friends to look out and care for him. Cosmic coincidence (and dramatic storytelling) dictated he get sick at the most inopportune moment. Oh the humanity.
The origins of the bitching about this instance with the medicine always was, that the people watching the show thought it was a cure and Goku didn't take it for some reason. That has never been true. That meme(along with many others) took a life of its own once the internet became widespread.
How come they didnt immediately go find the dragon balls and wish goku to like, never get the disease in the first place?
How come they didn't do [blank] with the dragonballs is a pretty universal complaint. There's some limitations for the obvious wishes, the dragon is only as strong as its master so he can't fuck with people stronger than him. But they never tried to full force lawyer the wishes. Really, the answer is just, it wouldn't make for much of a story.
Wanna talk about should've-would'ves, what if Goku's illness takes him down while he's fishing, underwater for those sweet giant carp. Strongest guy in the universe, drowns. And then it's like, does that mean he died due to the virus or drowning? If he drowned, could he be brought back? If yes, would he still have the virus? Maybe he shouldn't go fishing anymore.
The implication though is that Goku already wasn't feeling good the morning 19 and 20 showed up. Even if he was in denial initially, the fact that just a little bit of flying had him out of breath and sweating was his big indicator he not only that he needed the medicine now, he should've taken it that morning when he first started to feel like shit. I'll chalk it up to bot idiocy and Saiyan pride (and, you know, story reasons).
See, now the whole "Retardoku dudn't take his
cure (the argument was always he didn't take a cure, arguer not realising it's medicine)" turned from a supposed enormous plot contrivance into arguing about carelessness on the day off to still say Goku getting sick was contrived. On this level, pretty much every decision/action every character makes/takes at any point in the series can be questioned and called contrived.