It "the gate"is absolutely fundamental to the continued survival of a LL aerobatic pilot.
Agreed, but it also appears from report the AH didn't make the entry gate ( speed) at the bottom of the gate by a significant margin. Everybody keeps banging on about gates as if they are something new or mysterious but I'm sure as a current display pilot and also as far back as his previous aeros training in the RAF AH would have been just as aware of the importance of gates as we all are here. Just as importantly as you rightly say Arfur D the pilot would have been interested in his " continued survival" on the day.
What bothers me is as I said a while back regarding the "top" gate - these weren't minor gate infringements where one might be tempted to "wing it", he was (according to the AAIB) almost 50 knots slow at the start of the manoeuvre (i.e. the pitch up) and around 700 feet low at the top. IMHO something is not quite adding up.