The Cirrus statistics are quite clear. Those who pull the chute within limits walk away. Those who attempt a forced landing, aren't usually so lucky. What this boils down to is was he confident in walking away by pulling the chute? Yes, he was, so he pulled it. We will never know if he would have been so lucky if he had attempted landing in a field. We will never know but the stats are clear. EF = chute. We can all be wise by glancing a few photos and saying that its like a bowling green, so he made a mistake. What we don't know is what the surface looked like from 2000ft. Could you - or anyone else for that matter - say with 100% certainty, that they could tell that a field landing is a better option from that altitude? I doubt it very much.
Here is the link to the COPA presentation. Long but worth listening to.