This is sadly an example of a boat operator tying to get into that "lucrative rebreather market" or allowing a guest to dictate their own terms "let me bring my rebreather or else I won't book" without having adequate support staff on the vessel. Didn't have offboard gas below 60 feet? What about didn't have offboard gas at all? I don't know of a single manufacturer or training agency that advocates rebreather dives of any kind without offboard gas.
This is a completely stupid preventable tragedy that didn't have to happen, and the harder the big training agencies push the "anyone can dive, and anyone can dive a rebreather" message, more stupid events will happen. If a boat is going to allow rebreather diving, the captain or someone in the crew has to be at least familiar with rebreathers, so some idiot doesn't convince the captain that "it's alright, I dive without bailout all the time".