If there was a conspiracy, then we should not look at the hikers, but instead follow the money. Nobody would harm or confuse the death scene unless there was both risk and reward. Follow the money. Whose financial circumstance or social standing improved afterward? This was not the work of a single person, so how much did the silence of others cost? I think the answer to these questions is "nothing". There were no deathbed confessions nor great personal gains to be had. Even in those suspicious old days, someone should know and vodka makes tongues slippery. The truth would be known by now.
We remember there were two expeditions at the same time. Only Dyatlov`s met with disaster. If they stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time, certainly the other group would become somehow involved. This did not happen. During their final days it is clear that after losing the marked trail and plowing snow, the hikers would cache and camp on high ground. Trekking through the forest in deep powder makes little sense, and Igor was intelligent. The tent was placed on leveled snow, supported below with skis, placed properly against the snow shelf and intelligently laid out inside, including the position of the stove. No conspirator would know Hiking club methods for making camp. There are claims the bodies of some were turned after death. The persons making the claims in the field were not medical people and the bodies in question were clothed. How could a person tell? If one insists on this, then I suggest they died, blood settled, they froze and the wild wind rolled them over. Footprints are found in the snow. Was the kind of footwear determined before or after the tent was found? Was this determined before or after the three returning hikers were found. Were they footprints at all? They were raise impressions in the snow, but obscured by other snow 500 feet down hill. This is the same hill three dead hikers are found buried by snow. Magical snow. All in all, it seems the hikers acted perfectly logically and rationally. They kept to the high ground, made cold camp and were forced to leave by a percieved threat of natural cause. A ground tremor portending a snow slip prompted their exit. Whether in day or night, they simply underestimated the distance to the forest, became mentally dull owing to cold and hunger, They tried to keep warm at the cedar, but the wood was to wet. Three heroically tried to return but their bodies failed them. Two succumbed by the fire and four were trapped in a ravine, injured, hungry and cold. After discovery, the Soviet appeared to make every effort to investigate and honor the dead with a decent burial. I have difficulty seeing this any other way. The facts speak for themselves. With respect for differing opinions, of course.