As for the future I can only see some significant legal action towards the operator given the passengers involved.
Helicopter VMC criteria over land in Class G airspace are very lenient, perhaps too much so - as long as you are below 700' AGL, you just need to be clear of cloud, within sight of ground or water, inflight visibility 800 metres and 'operating at a speed to see and avoid obstacles' or similar wording - 800 m is a very far cry from the 5000 required for most other operations below 10,000 ft.
Although 500 ft AGL is the minimum for low flying over non-populous areas, 'stress of weather or other unavoidable reason' allows you to go lower if you have to. It is arguable as to when it becomes unavoidable, i.e. could you have turned around and avoided it rather than pressing on, but once down in a valley with scud around, that becomes somewhat academic.
The reason I say this it that a legal case against a VFR helicopter operation scud running at low level may be hard to win, given the above. Obviously the 'avoid obstacles' part didn't happen, but things can sneak up on you very quickly.
This is not a commentary one way or the other on what should or shouldn't have been done, just saying that you can get into some very compromising situations and still be legal, particulary around hills and particularly when there are wires around too. The onus is very much on pilots as to how far they will push. A decision to turn back will often be delayed due to commercial pressure or simple desire to get through, both understandable, and I think we can all appreciate that what may sound cut and dried when reading accident reports may well have been much more ambiguous to the people involved at the time.
How far do I press? How bad is the visibility really? Will it improve over the back of this ridge line or past these hills? Always have an out, as the saying goes, but sometimes your 'out' can disappear before you know it.