May I humbly request all to stop questioning the pilots decisions in this case. They had paid with their dear lives. There is absolutely no point saying “they should have done that, they shouldn’t have done that”.
Published technical data are flight tests figures done in a certain condition. In my 30 years of real life commercial jet flying, there is no two sets of conditions that are the same. No two runways are the same, the same runway is also not the same with different depth of water/contaminant. Let’s not forget water/ contaminant in real life is not uniform. A B777 or A330 stopping performance is better than a B737.
Here are some questions. Did you notice some tires have more grooves than others on the same aircraft? Does this impact the stopping performance? Which type of tires your airline chose to use and did they made that decision purely based on economics instead of functionality? Did the manufacturer specify standing water depth limit for landing? Are these tires suitable for a place with over 3000mm of annual rainfall? Does the airport report standing water depth?(not common).
Every incident gives some valuable lessons to the industry. Let’s just focus in learning’em.