Let's pretend we know already that Lthium batteries might be te culprit in this and the UPS crash as well. Notices about so-called 'thermal runaway' reactions on Li-batts have been circulated fairly early. The Dangerous Goods Regulations have been extensively rewritten on that subject too...
Yet, remember the cellphones of the early days ? Weighed you down and even fresh off the charging unit they barely made it through the day - in stand-by mode. Today you're usually good when you hook it up maybe twice a week. Means that manufacturers are cramming ever more oomph in ever smaller space, one wonders if the regulatory powers are able to keep on top of this fast paced development.
I have some - only some - doubts about the notion that the manufacturers getting cut some slack due to heavy lobbying, because insurance companies are sitting on the other side of the fence and they have a vested interest to keep risks at a level where they collect premiums instead of coughing up serious money. It's cheaper to pay a few more cents for packaging then settling for a whole aircraft with cargo. Also, two people died; can't really put a price tag on a human life, IMO.
No amount of money can't undo that...
So, if there is a feeling that the current regulations aren't sufficient - look them over, rework them.
Then there's smoke detectors. They detect just that - smoke. Smoke means that the contents of the package(s) has already developed eough heat to torch the packaging. So much heat actually, that it might be too late...
Thermal imaging hardware used to be heavy, cumbersome and hideously expensive. Today, a thermal imaging camera fits in the palm of your hand.
Why not install a few of these in the holds? Could tell the crew of any cargo growing a 'hot spot' long before the smoke detectors would come into play. Possibly early enough to intervene or buying you more time. Time that could make the difference between coming in or going down...
Too expensive ? Heck, then stick temperature controllers in the boxes. Pharmaceuticals, perishables, most of that stuff travels already with temperature sensing and recording devices (mainly to figure out whose butt to kick when it gets spoiled). shouldn't be too much of an engineering challenge to hook them up with some kind of alarm device...