and an acceptance that this apparent gap in air traffic control and airspace management will be allowed to persist?
"Gaps" exist everywhere as far as human activities are concerned, specially the regulatory environment, few countries have resources to design systems that are prepared for the worst conditions or most unlikely scenarios, nobody builds levee that can withstand one-per-hundred years floods, only what you can reasonably expect short term, so to lament about "gaps" is simply like lamenting about strong earthquakes or some cataclysm. By the way, MH370 doesn't even register on a scale of importance where gaps should/could be mended.