Not talking below 10,000 isn't going to make flying that much safer.
People get distracted for a number of reasons. Sometimes i wish something would be said to break up the silence. After 6 legs, short overnight, communicating with the other person is a good way to tell they are awake.
A real company will find out why a person misses a step on the checklist. Not just some blanket statement that some sterile rule was broken. It's never that simple. Accidents are always a chain of events. We weren't there so we won't know 100%.
After doing a 4 day consisting of 20 legs, things blend into eachother.
Did we do a taxi check? How about before takeoff?
How about....Were we cleared to land? I heard it 6 times today but was that 2 hours ago or 2 minutes?
I'm not making excuses but you have to realize 100% of the pilots break the sterile rule and 100% of the pilot have broken an FAR and 100% of the pilots have made a mistake. Just hope you aren't in an airplane that has an accident at the same time. The FAA is on the side of the CEO's.