It couldn’t hide. No nation would keep its landing a secret.
India has a good 24/7 air traffic and military radar system, so does Burma and Thailand.
FL370 could have tailed another airliner and hidden in its radar shadow. But there would no point to a jihadist doing so with out making an attack which hasn’t happened.
The motive of the pilot was to evade detection. That happened as soon as FL370 reached flight elevation and turned off the ACARS. He turned off the transponder as soon as he was beyond Kuala Lampur air traffic control.
All the data points to a run to the S Indian Ocean to ditch where the waters run deeper than out subs can go.
There is no reason to fly 4,000 miles to commit suicide by crashing where you will never be found.
1. Turning off the ACARS and the transponder are the act of someone trying to evade detection.
2. The route choses was to fly back over Malaysia to the western air corridor.
I think there is a lot of information that we don’t have about the passenger list and/or the pilot and his political idol.