I agree it's interesting. But since I haven't seen it mentioned here elsewhere in this thread, I'll bring up the alternate theory that this is a "limited hangout". In this version, Iran starts by professing complete innocence, but eventually confesses to shooting down the plane by mistake, whereas in actuality they shot down the plane intentionally. I have estimate of the likelihood of this explanation, but if it were true, I think it would be a very effective strategy of misdirection.

The main argument against this interpretation is that Iran would have no reason to intentionally shoot down an innocent airliner. I don't know that this is true. One theory is that there were people on the plane they wanted dead even at significant cost in embarassment. This doesn't seem impossible. Another theory is that they shooting was done intentionally by a faction trying to make Iran look bad, and Iran decided that calling it a mistake was less embarrassing than calling it treason or mutiny.

Anyway, my point isn't that there is necessarily some deeper conspiracy, only that it may still be too early to claim that the initial conspiracy theory was entirely correct, or offers a full explanation.

Context for other readers: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21989165

The video was the smoking gun

The "engine failure" claim was simply unreasonable. Considering the altitude and the weather, there were a few ways that the aircraft could just suddenly go down without warning:

1. bomb on the aircraft

2. missile strike

3. collision with an aircraft larger than a hobby drone

4. metal fatigue

5. evil in the cockpit

It was glaringly obvious from the first report considering the ongoing missile strike.