meadowbank's point:
<<Incidentally, I believe the "cruise climb" was an assumption based on connecting the SuperTANS position recorded at Waypoint change to that recorded at power-down (impact).>>
is important - too many had taken it as gospel that there was an intention to climb.
Understanding how tenuous this assumption was together with the slowing down by 20 kts TAS (as calculated by Boeing for the leg from waypoint change) should help counter the allegation that they had selected an incorrect rate of climb - they weren't going over anyway.