Thank you for the responses.
I have observed that when service people work on dispensers and pumps they do not shut off breakers most of the time. But when they do, they do not shut off the EMO but only an individual breaker, which does not open the neutral.
Also, sometimes they use a receptacle on the building or other location that is not neutral switched and run a chord to the dispensers when servicing.
I guess what I see is that the majority of the time that there is potential explosive fumes (filter changes and meter changes or fuel being unloaded), the neutral is left in tact. But once every few years that there is a surface spill large enough to warrant hitting the EMO switch (assuming the attendant stops the entire station instead of the pump stop on the register), then the neutral is opened. If the EMO is hit then we have a potentially invisible hazard because the canopy lights are out too.
But I am thinking the more likely is that an EMO doesn't get hit, if ever, until after the fire/explosion. And then they are in the dark from the canopy lights being cut.
I have seen three separate stations where the pump and tanks were upgraded, and that neutrals were mixed up. You can point to the electrician but it wasn't the same company that did it. The problem came when the main panels are feeding existing signs, areal lights, air machines and whatnot, and then the upgrade required more circuits for the signs, or one switched and the other 24/7. They ran a second circuit from the gas panel to a device that already had a first circuit coming from the main panel and then ran separate neutrals but did not keep them straight when they re-landed them and tied them together in one case.