Does a blown out door plug actually have the potential to lead to a total disaster, such as tearing the airframe apart due to sudden decompression?

And that the emergency slide ripped off

Note that under normal pressurisation, there is 1000's lbs/kg of pressure pushing inside to outwards on just the door alone...

• at sea level: 1,013.25 hPa
  
• at 2,500 m / 8,200 ft (cabin level): ~747 hPa
  
• at 5,000 m / 16,400 ft (roughly the level of AS1282's door blowout): ~540 hPa
  
• at 11,000 m / 36,000 ft (cruise level): ~226 hPa
  

So the pressure difference from cruise level to cabin level is:

747 hPa - 226 hPa = 521 hPa = 52,100 Pa = 52.1 kN/m² = 5,210 kg/m² = 123,634 lbs/sqft

...and from accident level to cabin level:
747 hPa - 540 hPa = 207 hPa = 20,700 Pa = 20.7 kN/m² = 2,070 kg/m² = 49,121 lbs/sqft

A Boeing 737 door spans.... maybe 2 square meters = ~21.5 sqft

That's a force corresponding to 10.4 metric tons or 11.5 short tons pushing against the door plug at cruise level.

The Alaska 737 Max 9 lost its door plug at ~16,000 ft. At 16,400 ft a force corresponding to 4.1 metric tons or 4.5 short tons pushed the door plug out. Wow.

I never thought about the true numbers related to pressurized airframes. After all it's air not water. It's obvious that submarines are exposed to high pressure changes, therefore large forces. I wasn't aware that forces on pressurized airframes are this large.

So the pressure difference from cruise level to cabin level is:

747 hPa - 226 hPa = 521 hPa = 52,100 Pa = 52.1 kN/m² = 5,210 kg/m² = 123,634 lbs/sqft

...and from accident level to cabin level:
747 hPa - 540 hPa = 207 hPa = 20,700 Pa = 20.7 kN/m² = 2,070 kg/m² = 49,121 lbs/sqft

• 5,210 kg/m² = 1,067 lbs/sqft
  
• 2,070 kg/m² = 424 lbs/sqft
  

Uuh, reminds me of: There are two types of countries in the world: those that use the metric system, and those that have put a man on the moon. I think, I disqualified myself. :-(

All those numbers, remember there are 10 total door holes on that air frame.

As to this rip apart, Aloha Airlines flight 243 shows just how strong those bulkheads are. Boeing 737-200 btw.

Also note that a door blow-out can destroy the aircraft and all those on board:

cargo-door blowout caused Turkish Airlines Flight 981 to crash

Figure 14 of the NTSB preliminary report shows the plug to be sitting correctly on the pads, and the four bolts missing.
I think you are talking about figure 9 in the report which is a post incident "reassembly" of one of the pads against its opposite number on the door, this photo is there to show how the damage on the pad and the plug line up, this is clearly not how it was in service as the pad has been removed from the airframe.