@lemme - your photo clearly shows what i call the saddle - on the left 8,232ft then the downward curve and up the 8,127ft to the right.
When you are not sure about your heading, even if you know your DME distance, you would have to add the 1,000ft i mentioned in my previous post to the 8,000ft before you could think about starting a descent. So even if they had cleared the VOR ridge there would have been a real risk of hitting either side of the saddle. And if they had kept that safer 9,000ft it would have forced them into a steeper descent on finals.