It's not an isolated incident, sadly. In the sim I have seen someone with a five-digit number of jet hours almost stall in alternate law with no AP and manual thrust. Very close to stall speed and pulling some stupid G when abruptly levelling off from descent. And what about Air France, where a crew of three couldn't recognise a stall and not even one of them took over control and performed the recovery memory items? What about Air Asia, where the FO achieved some crazy four-digit rate of climb at FL370 and eventually stalled the aircraft because of literally not being able to fly straight and level?
Back when I did my line training, one of the training Captains had the habit of disconnecting the autopilot for a moment at random times during flight, just so that you hear the sound and get your head round the fact that it can happen and it won't result in the aircraft crashing. And, when you do this to many people, their startle in the beginning is great. Precisely what happened with Air Asia. The overly fast and jerky reactions of the FO which put the aircraft into a steep climb ending with a stall were largely due to startle and stress. So, flying manually can also be seen as the sort of confidence booster reminding you that it's ultimately you in charge and not the autopilot. The autopilot is a fantastic tool, very convenient and making life a whole lot easier - but it's there to serve you and implement your decisions, not to do its own thing. The better people understand that, the smaller the chance of incidents and accidents related to loss of control in flight.