Low time or forged high time most assuredly. Just from the simple fact that he blew so many chances to reacquire references. Plus the fact that you don't fly like that for long before Darwinism catches up. An anxiety/machismo driven nightmare.
It's fun to call the guy a moron and say I would never fly in those conditions, but as mentioned earlier you fly for long enough you're going to get caught out. It would be nice to think the guy could of been mentored into the "weather, appropriate speed, hoge power, fuel, daylight , landing spots available" game but chances are his training consisted of a check mark on a training checklist. "You fly into imc you pull a 180 duh! And don't fly in cloud or below a mile viz." Like it's that easy. Just a vertical curtain you fly into and out of.
This case makes me think of kinetic and potential energy as important decision tools in your imc bag of tricks. After immediately going imc he had the chance to either slow up and descend gently , yes possibly into the trees, to become a tangled mess. Or climb for the heavens to honor the stiff wing gold bars on his epaulettes gaining time and altitude and like pissing your pants a sense of relief. Then having to convert all that altitude into airspeed (both vertical and horizontal ) only to have to figure where the ground could possibly be and which way is up all over again if god doesn't part the skies for you. The higher energy involved guaranteeing a smoking hole over the tangled mess.
Please do have a plan and stick to it.