Northbeach
Excellent post, illuminating for the many people reading here who probably don't understand the number of factors that combine to give the end result of an error chain.
The Airport Authorities at PFO must be made to ask themselves why they don't feel the need to label this peice of tarmac as a disused runway with an X at each end or if they need to use it as a runway on the odd occaision then a proper runway designator such as 29R to avoid confusion.
The layout is the opposite of several other airports with parallel TWY and RWY with the terminal nearest the TWY.
The position of the sun wouldn't have helped, PAPIs are often completely invisible until on very short final.