Back in Hillary's day, people making these attempts were not considered "tourists" that were part of an anonymous group. Back then, expeditions consisted of GROUPS of people who trained and worked alongside eachother.
Nowadays, people fork over cash and apply. Many of them have no business being there. The goal is to climb the mountain. Any other goal means that they'd never even approach the summit, given the capabilities of many climbers in these "teams".
I've got a question. Those folks take along some kind of oxygen supply right? How much does it supplement? I wonder if that played into it. Without a decent air supply it feels like your whole body is dying. You get tunnel vision. You don't think clearly. I can see how otherwise rational people just might develop a very hard screw you attitude.