Agreed, 7 hours of flight time would put FL370 well beyond any jihadist target in India. This was not Muslim terrorism but lone wolf political protest.
That’s why the ton of gold in cargo theory is the most likely to me right now. It serves all of Occam’s Razor requirements.
There may be additional advantages to some nations woven into this hijacking, but gold ‘moonshining’ rings the most logical. The flight simulators indicate serious intent to take the money and run.
(Woo, hoo hoo!)
Unless someone tried to get to him before he could make landfall in India and he took the plane down earlier than wanted!