It seems like declaring an emergency could have saved the day. I'm looking into exactly this topic for quite a while now and it seems there is very little knowledge
As mentioned earlier, the cultural issues are probably very relevant. However, whilst not agreeing with it, I can see why some aircrew may be tempted not to push out a Mayday when they see their FMS-generated landing fuel fractionally lower than their calculated final reserve figure. What I can't understand is how a crew could accept any instruction to 'hold' when they have less than half of the stipulated final reserve figure remaining in the tanks!
That said, if they had regularly landed on fuel minimums, did they perhaps think the fuel remaining was a tad more than it actually was!