If as reported the cause of the axle failure was corrosion,perhaps a more pertinent question may be could/should it have been detected at the last nose wheel change.Corrosion is a long-term issue and would have been developing for some time.That said,the aircraft would have had a Daily or equivalent inspection by an engineer in the preceding 48 hours,a somewhat more detailed inspection than any pre-flight.Should it have been discovered then?The issue of engineer pre-flights is like that of the carriage of a flight engineer - redundant - because the manufacturers and the certifying authorities have deemed it to be so!
All the industrial posturing will make no difference at all. Cheers