With due respect to F16 guy and vilas, I think the control issue is a red herring, and I don’t 100% blame the pilots either, (nor am I excusing them).
We all know that every accident is a combination of more than one factor.
I have not read the full report but in this case we probably had:
A quick turnaround.
A possible language problem or a misunderstanding.
Loading instructions not carried out.
Incorrect CG of aircraft.
Incorrect THS setting entered in FMGS and set for take-off.
Incorrect operation of flight controls on take-off (half pitch-down should be applied until 80 kts).
Incorrect decision to continue take-off following recovery of nose pitching up.
Incorrect decision not to immediately return to airfield.
In an ideal world, the pilots would not have been under time pressure and would have checked the load sheet properly. They would also have insisted that a double check be made of the passenger distribution in the cabin. But it is not an ideal world and turnarounds, slots and general pressure to stick to schedules are causing a potentially dangerous atmosphere these days.
I have never in any SIM been given, or seen a badly out of limits CG, leading to a mis-set THS, leading to a premature pitch-up. These guys/gals probably never had either. By the time they had recovered from the pitch-up situation it might have appeared to them that there was insufficient runway left to stop on - hence the initial power off followed by power back on and decision to continue the take-off.
Some might respond that we are pilots and should be able to handle any eventuallity, but again, we all know that is not how the world is, and unusual things like this should be demonstrated to us in the SIM*
You would not expect a concert violinist to be able to play a piece of music they had never seen before to performance standard first time - they practice, practice, practice - and a similar thing applies to pilots of large complex jet transports.
*without pre-warning, as this will have a much stronger learning value than if the situation is pre-briefed.