Very good post, indeed.
I believe you were riding correctly for the road conditions, and that’s fine. The SV lad has learnt a valuable lesson and this is road riding is about limiting your exposure to the dangers, what he did increased his chances of a crash.
Limiting the danger would be riding a little faster on your favourite B road, with no traffic and no blind bends. The difference is you know what your bike is capable of and you know the safe places to practice it.
I broke my arm snowboarding, guess what I was going too fast, hey there is danger in everything.