Illusions, of both the optical and justification varieties
Pretty thoroughly, comprehensively, and rigorously indisputable that an air transport pilot is responsible for the safety of the people on board, certainly as a legal question. Does that mean that neither SARPs nor national laws pertaining - to pick an example at random - to training prior to licensure, including awareness of optical illusions existing (or prevalent) in airfield lighting could not be improved, because the Pilot is Responsible Ultimately? If a poster thinks that answer is "yes", I would strongly disagree.
And about summary dismissal: without asserting that summary dismissal could tend to weaken or mitigate the extent of co-operation and honesty on the part of the dismissed pilots, nevertheless, summary dismissal is presumptuous in this matter. The exploration of all the possibly causative and/or contributing factors is too important in this case to allow a kind of retaliatory lust to take over. If it indeed is warranted (and from information already in the NTSB record it very well could be warranted, but I do not know that) to dismiss the pilots, dismissal, like revenge, will be served better cold.