Uplinker - there are plenty of us ex-mil whose job was to fly at low level and we were well trained to do it, day and night - unfortunately there are many who think they can do it without the training.
I note that the accident pilot had been in the USMC but as an aircraft mechanic and not a pilot, and he would have seen plenty of pilots go off to low fly and maybe heard tales of their exploits, probably with bad weather as a factor.
Now fast forward to him having his own licence (only 7 years of experience and probably little at low level) and he is pushing limits he has heard about but not experienced.
Otherwise I struggle to think why he would put himself in a situation that properly trained and experienced pilots would have balked at.