..whether he had too much left pedal or too much aft cyclic we don't know but a good and progressive take-off technique would surely have prevented this accident.
Yep. Every pilot should be proficient at taking off and landing at the aircraft weight limit, at the cross wind limit, at the CofG limits, and slope limits. And mixtures of combinations of any number of these things. Somehow I suspect some pilots experience few (or none) of these things prior to license qualification, and come the time early in their operational experience they are surprised by one of these challenges that is beyond their skill level. Or, just a simple case of brain fade which could happen to anybody.