What article did you read? The one i read said:
"It added the pilot didn’t have sufficient certification for night flight with passengers or flying on instruments alone."
I guess its possible, but ive never heard of someone getting their commercial before their IFR.
The Commercial certificate does not require an Instrument rating.
However: The pilot, age 29, held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for single engine land, multi-engine land and instrument airplane.
But he did not meet the currency requirements, particularly FAR 61.57(b).
According to all available documentation, the pilot undertook an illegal flight for which he was not qualified.
Flying at night can be very disorienting, hence the currency requirement. That alone could have caused the crash. This has been happening since long before portable electronics were invented. There is no evidence that cell phone cameras were used on this flight. Actually, we know that his GoPro camera definitely was not used. He had a habit (documented on GoPro) of careless and reckless operation: using a cell phone in critical phases of flight (including allowing passengers to use their flash cameras). On some previous flights, both were used, which is why the NTSB is wildly speculating that cell phone/camera usage is what happened this time.