Caz, rather a subjective last paragraph. Ordinarily, one would hope that an aircraft is released to service within a set of clearly defined limitations, not a "Be careful chaps, the paint's not quite dry and there may be a few spare nuts, bolts, screws etc rattling around inside the aircraft". It seems to me that ZD576 spent twice as long as your 146 in the hangar having various faults rectified right up to the crash day itself; not exactly a good indication of the serviceability (dare I say airworthiness?) of an aircraft.
Secondly, I would like to think that safety management has moved on a bit since your JP3A run to Shorts. If it hasn't, surely it should have done.