Hi Lyman
If as you ask we leave aside the titanium strip and instead assume that there was an engine failure(not caused by FOD) then if I understand correctly you are of a view that the missing spacer will cause a shimmy which makes the FE think that he must shut down the engine immediately. Then the loss of that engine results in the plane not being able to climb away safely and so we end up with the same tragic outcome.
Now we have an engine failure then in this hypothetical case, the reason for the failure would have to be investigated and also the possibility that the engine was switched of because of the failure must also be considered. So there are a lot of new things that have to be considered.
I presume (correct me if am wrong) that you think the FE would not have shut down the engine just based on the shimmy, but he would also need to have other indications of failure.
Unfortunately for your hypothesis to have any chance of being proved, we would need to know exactly what the FE was thinking as the accident unfolded.
Having read CliveL's helpful posts and considering what you have said I am still of the view that the report gives us the best overview of the accident.