767ER,
You might have mis interpreted the point there. This was no second guessing. It was an attempt by the very professional investigation team (at hard work for three years and more - no Monday morning quarterbacks) to find out whether the situation was surviveable.
What they discovered is that it was not - the point being that the aircraft became unflyable 2 minutes before a completely serviceable one could possibly have landed.
So the attempt and the evidence vindicates the crew - rather than incriminates them. There is no suggestion that the crew (and I knew them too) were anything other than top pilots.