The de ice remark is bizarre, If you are going to treat the Tail, why not the wings? even if they are clear id say still treat them its -12, find this a really odd decision, Its early days but i would be very surprised (especially with the latest info about roll oscillation) if this incident is not ice related, the decision to treat one part of the aircraft and not the other is crazy, all down to $$$$.
The hours and years experience of pilots is near irrelevant it just makes you more complacent, plenty and plenty of 20K+ hour pilots have managed to crash perfectly serviceable aircraft over the years