Bearfoil ...
The crack in the Pin/Sleeve of the Rudder attachment, as well as the missing piece of "vertical arm" suggest a serious overload of the Rudder loading/attenuation system, but in its normally operating 'plane' of stress.
You have raised something that has bothered me for some time, i.e. the photographs that have been supplied in both interim reports, have been taken very early on in the investigation. One taken of the V/S attachments was clearly taken onboard the Brazilian warship "Constitucion" - the polypropylene rope used as a lashing is clearly visible. Likewise, the "vertical arm" shot has been taken once the skin panel has been removed. I would have hoped that some evidence of forensic metallurgy would have been presented, e.g. crack detection/bluing, ultra-sound, x-rays. Hopefully it has been done, and will be presented eventually.
Though the acceleration forces present on impact were high (36g), deformation has mostly been upwards from the bottom. This means in the case of the hull, that each frame was deformed through the same axis at which it had its greatest strength. Longitudinal framing and outer skin etc.. deforming equally like a you would expect to see a tennis ball do when being hit or striking a wall. The cabin pressure would have been low, but an implosion resulting from that was probably canceled out by the volume displaced as the frames deformed from the bottom. Hardly science, but you'll get the general idea.
mm43