Yes pot odds apply in tournaments.
However, staying alive is important as well. If you don't survive past the bubble you don't get paid. Losing all your ships is fatal, so you have to factor in survival as well.
That is, if you figure you're getting 1:1.5 on your money in an all-in pot early in a tournament, and you figure you're slightly better than a coin flip to win, it's probably best to fold and collect chips at safer opportunities.
But in a ring game, you're gleefully putting all your chips in as often as possible in that situation. If things don't go your way in a ring, you rebuy and get right back in the action.
I guess another way to put it is that in rings, over time, the reward is proportional to pot odds. This is *not* so in tournaments, which pay for finishing position, not whether or not you played a hand well. Yes the pot odds are important, but they are not proportional to the reward because a lot of other factors come into play (not the least of which being the unbalanced payout scale).