I think you're veering into speculation here. Note that the "experienced and well-equipped" evaluation was made by the extremely competent and experienced park service guys, not the victim party. The park service sees all kinds of assclown on the mountain so they are in an excellent position to make the judgement.

Your tone is pretty heavy too. What is your mountaineering experience?

The earlier posters with experience in that realm are correct: being skilled and going light will, in the long run, be safer in the mountains than going heavier and slower. When I say "being skilled" I mean exercising good judgment based on experience, not just being able to physically do the work.