It's not a matter of finding the implausible, it is a matter of recognizing clearly stated understandings of Earhart's fuel management by Noonan and Putnam and that the lady often had discipline issues with many facets of her flying: radios, DF basics, taking off heavily laden without use of flaps as recommended by Johnson, etc., etc., etc.
Yes she made it to Ireland solo - but range wasn't the big issue in that one. Nor had any previous leg of the round the world effort been as challenging. She was gutsy and smart - and very lucky to make it to Ireland, for instance: broken exhaust manifold and bad weather should have defeated even the best of pilots, but she did it. Great lady.
Who ever said she was suicidal? That's far from the equation here - does that sort of suggestion stand the scientific method up more upright? Does criticizing the very experienced Long for 'wanting' just the right thing when TIGHAR should perhaps seek to better support its own suppositions, such as the veracity of the post-loss messages? Cannot those things stand on their own merits without taking Long down as abandoning aviation reason?
Noonan may well have gotten them close - good point, Bill; but I think it is far from a certainty that they had plenty of fuel to go beyond, as you state. I too agree that it would have been luck if they did find Gardner (and I'm not against the idea - so not sure I fit the 'Crashed and Sank proponent' label, even if I do consider it a very possible outcome).
It is not a question of 'mismanagement', but that of exceeding a performance standard that had been reported before - meeting that of Johnson and abandoning that which caused his interest in improving her range capabilities - Johnson, who seems to have been imploring Earhart to embrace something better than she had before. The very fact that he published that report and those telegrams suggests he was struggling to get her attention (in my view, yours may differ), and that some concern about her fuel management may have existed well enough.
Much doubt - I'll grant you all that; much unprovable, no matter your view - until the airplane is or may be found.