OK, any decent comments in this thread.

My feeling, many things happen at low altitude.

Wind shear
Wind gradient
Wind shift due to ground based stuff (trees, hills, buildings, etc.)
Thermal wind shift
Changed pilot perspective
Major change in pitch attitude vs. horizon (trees or hills have a big impact here)
Unintentional control inputs (rudder the turn is common and may be missed)

Below 800' agl or so, things are different.

Add in different quality of control seals, maybe different wing twist (either as built or later repairs) plus things I listed above, close to the ground has a bad habit of accentuating ANYTHING done wrong or incorrect.

The only time I have been "caught unaware" for a spin was when I was behind the aft limit in a ASW-20 (medium story, not worth repeating unless asked).
This was at altitude, took it in stride, remembered when in the pattern.

My early training was, "does it look good, does it sound good, does it feel good?". If not, fix it.......! Now......

Not saying departed pilots did something wrong, nor that there are killer ships out there.
Just saying things are/seem different when low and the escape margin is either thin or nonexistent.

Carry on the discussion.