Flight path data for other aircraft flying through that airspace show that they gave the storms a much wider berth than the Air France flight did. Picking your way between cells is very different than flying around the line of storms. Much trickier.
Also, a BIG storm in your RADAR’s line of sight will obscure the next one behind it etc. You don’t know what you are really flying into.
IIRC, some of these storms had tops up over 50,000 feet.
As a VFR pilot, a 180 is my best friend.