The altimeter in the case cited wasn't at fault, and didn't fail. The crew did.
Have you heard the one about the dog and the pilot.
The job of designers is to take the pilot out of the equation for exactly this reason.
Forgetting to adjust the altimeter, forgetting to arm the pressurisation, forgetting that pilots are human, forgetting why people wish a lot, are all good reasons and some why I supect we will end up with a more autonomous mechanism for altimeteres - I quite like IO540s suggestion.
Maybe one day. In the mean time it wasnt me making the case for GPS, rather you explaining why the altimeter is not perfect.
The fact that two of us did, and only you did not, would tell me something.