I read the same hypothesis, but it does not really square with the observation that soldiers, sailors etc. in life-threatening situations report similar experiences even if they end up physically unhurt.

Imagine a film of still and moving images depicting all situations that you ever experienced in your whole life. When you have a near death experience, that imaginary film appears in your consciousness and you immediately recall all those situations down to the greatest details, in parallel. You recall and relive even those moments that you thought were irreversibly lost in your memory. That process of recalling takes a split second, but once it comes to completion you get quite amazed that your brain (or something) was able to perform such a big and costly computational undertaking.

However, in my case, that shocking astonishment was not joyful. For me, it was bitter because once I was able to see every moment of my life with all my deeds and intentions packed in a highly-concentrated billboard of information, I realized how miserable my life actually was. I was driven by fear, illusions, money, greed, and selfishness. I was not giving, I was taking. I was not caring, instead I was mostly ignorant. I knew nothing about life and now it's ending and I spent it awfully.

A few moments later, I understood that a natural cycle of life and death was going to repeat itself one more time, so I made a hard promise to do it better next time, if at all.

However, the cycle did not repeat itself, as I received adequate medical help in time. I was able to make a recovery. But that experience changed me forever.