GlenQuagmire,
With all due respect there is a huge difference in what can be done in a corporate operation with a small pilot force who all know each other (been there and done that), and an airline. Even if an airline Captain wants to break the rules and ignore company SOPs, how is she or he supposed to decide if the first officer they are flying with, one of several hundred in the same base, who the captain has never flown with before, is the better or worse handling pilot in order to decide who should do the landing at the Cat C airport they are inbound to?
The only sensible answer to that question is that they can't, so therefore SOPs
are put in place based on the fact that Captain is capable of landing there, and it doesn't matter if the F/O is or not.
In the airlines I've worked for I have never considered being qualified for Cat C airfields to be an indicator of my skills, instead it is a pain in the a*rse as you end up (in Europe) working every weekend doing ski charters to horrible places or being a target for crewing for more standby call outs because you are the only one available who can go there.
Getting a bit closer to the original topic, the VOR approach to VNKT if flown in LNAV / VNAV really isn't that difficult, and weather wise one day the CBs might be in the way of that approach and the next day where the RNP approach takes you....however flying the VOR approach in VORLOC and VS with a tailwind might be a bit harder....my guess is they got high on the approach and tried to cobble together some sort of visual approach without briefing it or planning it, rather than fly the missed approach, divert and end up at the alternate, possibly out of duty hours to get home. Just a guess , as is most of what has been posted on this thread about the original topic.