I believe the real problem was the shuttle bay was full of stuff with no door. At least that was what a friend who works close to the shuttle program said to me.
No need for EVA suits if there was no door. No docking collar no way to connect to another mission vehicle. They did each have inside the vehicle suits.
The mission was simply not designed for anything but inside vehicle low gravity experiments.
Doomed from the getgo if the debris actually damaged the wing. IMHO taking out one critical tile near or on the leading edge and there would be no hope for safe re-entry. Since NASA could not prove damage they went with re-entry.
Space is a risky business even if no one is paying attention.
BTW, I was involved with the Apollo program, hence contacts and interest on my part.
snooker
I've been re-reading
The Right Stuff, and noticed that on John Glenn's flight, NASA thought the heat shield might have been damaged, and they went ahead with re-entry, because there wasn't any other option. They also didn't tell him any more than they had to, apparently because they did not want to risk him screwing up because he was nervous. Sounds like they also didn't say a lot to this crew.
Just curious, is this standard policy for NASA?