If she was stupid, so was everyone involved with her Search & Rescue. She was in a tent a half mile from the trail and none of the highly trained and experienced searchers ever found her. Maybe any of us would have made it out under the circumstances, maybe not. But we'll never know because none of us were there.
If it had been so easy for her to walk out, why didn't anyone walk in and save her? From the comments in this thread, I suspect few have ever experienced being well and truly lost
If they didn't know which section of the trail she was on, it would be more difficult to search thoroughly
