Look, there's a lot we don't know. Here's what I have good probabilities for:
1. The CVR will be recovered in due time. Yes, there's a lot of noise at the moment, but it'll happen. They may even "call off the search", but they'll get it.
2. They flew into an undocumented state. Odds are it was the same undocumented state as the previous flight or three. And odds are that this flight crew, for whatever reason, was less well equipped to deal with it. A potentially lethal situation just needs to keep reappearing before someone takes up the offer. Fate is the hunter.
so, say all you want about corporate safety culture and cultural norms for cockpit behavior. I'm sure something of it played a role. Probably mx too. But the aircraft should never have put the crew in a position for this to matter, and especially not due to some feature withheld from the manuals. That's the point Boeing is going to have to eat.