Speaking solely as SLF, my requirement would be for the pilots to concentrate on getting plane to breathable air level, then ease off the descent to avoid too much ear damage. Of course they may have no knowledge of what caused depressurisation, from hopefully a small leak or window or worse still, a door. Once down to a breathable level they then have to find out whether they still have working controls and the rest of the aircraft is still intact behind them.
As a passenger, surely there was some indication of loss of pressure (noise etc?) then seeing oxygen masks descend would indicate to any sensible person that a pressure failure had occurred. grab the mask, pull to release oxygen generator and keep your wits about you. I'm sure a rapid descent will hurt, so I'm sure the four minutes or so to get to safe level will seem an eternity.
Seems as if a few passengers acted like headless chickens and in their panic forgot what they should do (maybe oxygen deprivation if leak was initially slow and near where they sat?). They then point the finger at anyone else to blame. I think this was a textbook operation by crew and I'm sure that if passengers were being sucked out one by one, no survivor would criticise the speed of descent!!
Perhaps the only improvement would be to have an automatic announcement whenever masks are triggered. That may have happened but not heard in the initial panic, if so then maybe set it to repeat continuously....
Just my view, good job by the crew to control the problem then deal with the remaining issues.