However, it seems clear that the concensus is that 20 degrees nose-down from a normal winching height hover, especially at night over the sea, is a non-starter due to potential disorientation, large likely height loss and the strong risk of compromising the ditching.
I think I have to agree with you here. Hitting the water 20 degrees nose down has got to be less favourable than a more controlled ditching with less ROD, even at night. This then raises the question, that possibly Crab is alluding to, should we increase the perfromance margins when expecting to operate HOGE at night? How practical this is will be another question, especially for SAR, when loiter time is a key factor.