Capable people can do silly things under extreme stress, its a fault of the human condition, something everyone learns about but chooses to ignore.
You will never know what went on in that cockpit, until such a time that all light aircraft capture telemetry data for analysis.
The finer details of what went on are mostly irrelevant, the outcome was set once the decision to leave the pad was made.
if you choose to operate in marginal conditions under the hopes that superior skills and aircraft capability will save the day, then accidents like this will continue to happen.
There is a general belief that helicopters are immune to weather, after all you can always just turnaround or land. That only works if you make the call early enough.
Staying on the pad and paying those parking fees would have been far less costly.