The whole tracking issue is a red herring in this case. They HAD tracking to within 6 miles of the crash site. They had RADAR tracking to within 5 minutes of the apparent crash time, and ADS tracking for a minute after that! How much more tracking do you think we need, can afford, or will do anything useful?
IMO, it was the delay -- 50 minutes! -- in the response to the LOSS of tracking that caused the delay in the start of the search. In this case, that delay did not cause any further loss of life or property, but might cause additional loss in other types of mishaps.