Had those actions not taken place then the ongoing debate/discussion/anger and frustration that many express today, 32 years after the accident, would not be so prevelant.
Spot on.
But the grey cloud that sits over this accident and the way in which the government and business acted by joining forces and undertaking such a despicable act without proper recourse or punitive action will not ever be forgotten.
Spot on.
Where it starts to get ugly is when people try to analyse just the accident, just the events leading up to the accident, and others get upset because of the way certain parties behaved after the event and therefore won't accept that the fault doesn't lie squarely in one camp.
The fault/responsibility/blame....whatever you want to call it, is distributed unevenly over all the parties involved, just like most other accidents.
So to ask for complete absolution of blame for the crew is going too far in my mind. Maybe ask for recognition that actions by the airline led to a difficult and confusing situation for the crew, and that the subsequent behaviour of execs and politicians was gutless/corrupt etc.
Complete absolution is P Holmes not quite understanding what it means to be the PinC of an airliner.