Jack,
The Polish Report said, amongst a few impressive nuggets of nonsense:-
3.2. Causes of the serious air incident:
1. Probably inadequate monitoring of FMS indications.
2. Probably inadequate CRM by the flight crew in the cockpit.
3. Continuation by the crew of the approach procedure without visual contact with the
runway evironment.
My italics. Note there is no mention of the descent.
The decent rate prior to FL100 is irrelevant because we don't know whether ATC gave continuous descent, but in the event it averaged at 2300 fpm. That's normal. According to the Report, below FL100 speed was below 250 kts and ROD 1400 fpm until flap extension at the normal altitude and speed.
The cause of this serious incident was a visual approach performed into the rising sun without proper visual reference and an FO who probably did not question what the CPT was doing due to a steep cockpit experience gradient. Articles in Flightglobal and in other places have focused on the cockpit gradient, not the ROD...
Whilst there are plenty of reasons to get the hell out of Ryanair, you can't blame the company culture for this event. Ryanair has developed comprehensive SOPs to reduce the chances of this type of brainfart from happening and I dare say this incident is no more or less likely to occur at any other airline.