Re: Functions in kill-emacs-hook aren't run if emacs gets killed with SIGTERM

[Richard M Stallman]

SIGTERM's handler could run from anywhere, even in code in
the interpreter during which interpreter data structures are
temporarily inconsistent.  So there is no telling what might go wrong
if it tries to run kill-emacs-hook.

    Maybe another option is to first perform the autosaves (like
    shut_down_emacs does), and then run a hook.  This way, no matter what
    the hook does, no data is lost.

I agree that is safer.