Mullah Lite:
Those are valid questions, but if those pilots were in a hurry (they had begun a preflight on the wrong aircraft, then switched to the correct ship number) or did not use their taxi lights until they were pushing the throttles forward and reading their "Lineup" or "Before Takeoff" checklist fairly quickly, they would not be looking much outside.
But heck, they did not mind that the runway lights were off. Why did they not ask the Tower to switch them on? This might have prevented a tragedy.
By the way, at our hubs, many pilots leave their taxi lights off much of the time. I guess that is a symptom of being cool. But I really don't know. It goes way beyond courtesy. It must be some sort of fashion-it has happened for many years.
Some of the original 727s never had taxi lights installed.