It would be a mistake to suppose that more automation would have resulted in a different outcome. For example, an update to a critical system can also result in operator/interface breakdowns, leading to failures. In fact, according to some accounts, this is exactly what happened and it exacerbated things (some spreadsheet software was updated).
The automation in this case would be a means other than live telephone calls to confirm/update crew locations and, no, it would not be a mistake to assume other methods would scale better.
I recommend this paper to everyone: https://ckrybus.com/static/papers/Bainbridge_1983_Automatica...