Just to further extend my previous comments about ICUS.
I'm to understand the Captain of the accident aircraft was a recently minted PIC who came up through that folly ICUS upgrade process. Turn back the clock to when said Captain was a co-pilot undergoing 1000 hours ICUS. I know this is crystal ball gazing a bit, but do you think if faced with the same circumstances which resulted in the ditching, do you think the real Captain would be making the decision to ditch, or the pretend Captain who is really a co-pilot ICUS??
Would they have ended up floating on the big pond if it was an ICUS crew? Perhaps not. Perhaps so. Perhaps we'll never know. Perhaps this aspect is totally irrelevant. As per my usual caveat of ignorance I don't claim to know much about anything.