So all in all, what's my point? Stop turning this sorry catalogue of errors into some crusade to defend a controller that was having as bad a day as anyone else involved. It won't bring back the pilots and it won't do anything to patch up a deepening distrust (IMHO) that appears to be prevalent between aircrew and ATCOs.
I'm sorry you see it that way. The "crusade",as you call it, started when the original charge contained the word 'wilfully'. In my interpretation, that is with 'intent'. I am not defending a controller that was having a "bad day"; I am attacking a
system that refuses to acknowledge that there is another view as to how this accident might have occurred and has always seemed hell bent on having a scapegoat. I have no wish to demean the loss of life and all those involved acknowledge that this is the greatest tragedy in this sorry saga.
I hope that your final comment on a "deepening distrust" isn't well founded from the aircrew perspective; I haven't had any evidence of that from my controlling experience; the system relies very heavily on mutual trust for it to work.