I think I would concur with Loke's comments .. a pilot in the hot seat is not able to make an assessment of gradient (other than by reference to VSI) and, once you turn away from the scheduled escape procedure .. you are ON YOUR OWN ... with a commercial payload and critical conditions .. the distance to climb the net path to a nominal 1500 ft can be a long way .. especially on a twin jet (due to large speed delta associated with flap retraction and low WAT requirements anyway)