I imagine with 100% certainty that anyone in this situation who did NOT have a BRS chute would not have considered using one. They would have been consumed with the task at hand, and rightly so.
I don't know the area where this happened but I know the area surrounding my field like the proverbial back of my hand. I know that it all looks flat and lovely from 2000 feet (even better from 5000). And I know that my students think the same. However I also know that from 500 feet most of it looks a lot less inviting and from ground level a lot of it looks downright unappealing. Add to that the other environmental concerns.
4 months ago we got to go and recover an aircraft from a paddock after an unsuccessful forced landing that killed both occupants. The PIC was a current pilot with decent hours. In the pressure situation a few things didn't go his way and so he and his mate got killed. It wouldn't have mattered how good the paddock was, they stalled in from 100 feet +or-. I won't go into more detail, suffice to say that dead is dead.
As I've said, I know this area well, previously I would've had no qualms executing a forced landing here. After a session of picking up airplane bits in a field, my opinion changed.
We now have a BRS installed in our training aircraft and I would have no hesitation or shame in using it.