Please do explain your grave concern over the operation of the PBA in the S-76....as you keep throwing that out but never explain to the non-76 pilots why you see that as being such a big issue.
If it had been Force Trim-ON, ATT Mode engaged, resetting the pitch attitude to a climb attitude and ensuring adequate power was applied to maintain a positive climb rate would have been all of the immediate actions required.
A couple of subsequent actions to engage the upper modes and then the Pilot would have been able to progress from the Aviating to the Navigating and Communicating while monitoring the aircraft performance.