I think the priorities are being mixed up. The ELT will find the a/c, or rather the ELT. The FDR & CVR data will help the crash detectives discover the reason. The old thinking was that the ELT will find the FDR & CVR. Plus, both boxes would be readable. Neither are correct. We've seen, via documentary reconstruction, that the boxes can be very difficult to find and recover, even after the wreckage has been traced. 2ndly it has been the case where one or both boxes had be corrupted and important data was missing.
What we are discussing is 1. finding the wreckage, 2. deciphering the data. The two need not be necessarily be related. The FDR & CVR data can be transmitted live and downloaded at operations and saved for 2 hour periods. It should not be necessary to find 'the boxes' to decipher the data.
That is the debate. Finding the wreckage should be for other reasons, but not the data.
Watching the media telling stories about searching for the Black boxes, then eventually, after humungous efforts finding them, (aka AF447), is like watching an Indian Jones film about 'search for the Holy Grail.' It is so old tech compared with today's aviation space technology. It is as archaic as HF ATC communications. That is a debate been on-going for decades and achieved squat. Let's not fall into the "that's the way it we've been doing for a long time with no problems" cosiness. What will it take to shake the apple cart and catch up with reality? Years ago GPS/TomTom was the work of the devil. Now it is used by mariners, aviators, bikers, hikers. surveyors. runners, GA pilots, etc. etc. The new technology has been embraced. The top of the food chain still has some prehistoric components. Some XXA's are amongst them.