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Modern lifeboats can safely launch under pretty much any conditions.
Lifeboats on old passenger liners like the one you've pictured weren't meant to be launched during a violent collision or sinking. The expectation was a ship would remain upright and sink slowly enough that lifeboats could be leisurely craned down alongside it, and would just make short trips back and forth to whatever ships showed up to rescue passengers.
This is where the famous "not enough lifeboats for everyone on titanic" issue comes from, the expectation was the ship would take 2-3 days to fully sink, and if it started taking on water they could just call in a rescue ship and make multiple trips over. In reality it sank just 3 hours after the collision, before any help could arrive. Modern cruise ships have enough lifeboat capacity for all passengers and crew.
