rnzoli. Yes CFIT. Hence my muse about his "plan". Flying Binghi, I referenced post 28 above, the maneuver looks pretty vanilla, and not that risky when done with good timing.
You also brought up right rudder at impact. I saw that also, so a conclusion of "late" timing would be a reasonable explanation for the accident?
Inexperience may have allowed him to get too low, misjudging the rate of descent in knife edge. Assuming his plan was similar to Kulver's surmise....