The crew paid the price for a defective system
Agreed but it was the crew that decided to launch in poor weather with no diversion - even a just-out-of-training student pilot could have made the decision not to go just looking at the weather.
When you know you are part of a creaking system, that is the time to be more careful not less - look after number 1!
Professionals doing SAR without the right training and organisational systems are, by definition, amateurs.