Just as a matter of interest, what was the Plan A that VJ intended to do? Clearly it was to take off on 32L under VFR. But then it seems that they were just hoping to immediately receive IFR clearance to a SID, which seems to have been a false hope -- for whatever reason. Given that receiving such a clearance is never assured, these guys needed to have a Plan B. What was it? Just to wander around very constrained VFR airspace at less than 200 KIAS at less 2000 feet? One hopes not.
I tried to listen to the clearance delivery call (posted earlier by someone), quality was really bad, and I could only hear one side. They got the SID, routing, departure frequency and squawk. Instead of waiting for the release on ground they thought they could do the initial turn VFR and then hope, as you said, for an immediate IFR pick-up? Not realizing what they were getting themselves into. No plan B.
I don't recommend my friends to go flying in the US without a couple of familiarization flights. Not VFR. Not even in a C152.