Totally agree but what I am talking about is in this high stress very time critical situation and also the BA incident as it was brought up. To be critical of the JFK controller about what he said to get the plane to stop is ludicrous. In high stress situations people revert to basic language even to the point of sometimes speaking in their first language if it is not English. I expect the Lufthansa pilot knew the correct call to be made about stopping but reverted to something he learned a long time ago. It is quite common to revert to previous states when you are stressed, even to the point that a guy who flies an Airbus but used to fly a Boeing may revert to asking for flaps 25 or whatever it would be during a go-around in very high stress such as engine fire at the same time even though he should be asking for flaps 3.
Yes RT should be standard but exceptions have to be made when it is times like this as to be honest who cares as long as the message gets across.
The article states that the 777 took a wrong turn. He would have had to read back a runway crossing and obviously did not as was not cleared to do so. So the guy went past the big red sign, the hold line, probably a stop bar without clarifying an instruction he never got or read back. Even the non standard RT used in the US is no excuse. It is plain and simply bad airmanship on his part.