Controllers in Class D airspace do not have responsibility for terrain clearance. Regardless of what clearance you receive in class D, it’s your responsibility as the driver to keep yourself alive.
A pilot without a valid license, BFR, seemingly unprepared and out of their depth allowed themselves to descend into terrain.
Would a clearance have prevented this? Yes, of course. Should not getting a clearance have been a reason to descend into terrain as a VFR aircraft? No. There was a multitude of other options available to the pilot rather than just accepting a descent to below 1000ft, one must ask if they were even in VMC conditions at all when they commenced that.
If better procedures come as a result of this, then that’s good, and it’s good that the report has spent considerable time detailing the failings in ASA’s processes. It’s not the silver bullet though for what seems to be a continuing list of accidents where VFR pilots allow themselves to hit the ground in IMC. By the letter of the law, the pilot had no business being in an aeroplane that day at all.