I think the Krakauer book does a great job of describing the nuances of McCandless's level of preparedness. Of course maybe the author has a bias, but it certainly doesn't seem that way to me. McCandless was fairly unlucky despite having done quite a bit to prepare and try to ensure success. He ate a plant that was categorized as edible in a respected source book, but the actual part that he ate (in the season that he ate it) was poisonous. Once that happened and he realized what was going on, all his prior efforts to make sure he would remain isolated (including dubious choices like not bringing a map) spelled his doom. To me, McCandless made a conscious choice to try to live off the land without help. That is also a conscious choice to die if things go too wrong. Did he want to die? I don't think so, but he had to know it was a distinct and not-so-insignificant likelihood. I think I would NEVER do something like that. But was McCandless woefully unprepared? I personally don't think so. I am aware that I might have a minority opinion on that, because he did die.
Without commenting on McCandless in particular, pretty much every mountaineering accident report as well points out things that, had they been done differently, would have led to a better outcome. This becomes less true as you know you're going to be pushing limits if you go to climb K2. But lack of preparation or just shouldn't have gone out that day are pretty common themes.
