I found it interesting that in his book (good book bad name, Art of Schralpanism) Jeremy Jones talks about treating any avalanche forecast mentioning a PWL as if it has a "high" danger rating,...

I agree. I think it's notably from a decision-making standpoint though, since the field observations weren't matching up with the conditions the team expected.

...and because they were depending on a deeper snowpack in the zone to mitigate the PWL danger.