GY...
"As for Sunvalley I was confused (and still am) how you draw a similarity between the incidents..."
I believe that Bear Foil was simply drawing a similarity to the possibility of optical illusions caused by low vis, i.e., a narrower than normal runway causing a pilot to believe he is higher than he actually is, or the lights in a parking lot looking like runway approach lighting, etc.
I flew out of Buchanan at the time of this accident and for many years after, and actually lived very near Sunvalley mall at the time of this terrible accident - just about 1 mile away in Pleasant Hill....as you can guess, everyone was talking about it.
Bear...though it's been a while since, I'm truly sorry about your friend.