Pitting was not a good example of why C-130 should be kept, all it demonstrated was that a mass of mobility assets is occasionally useful.
Pitting was also not a good example of how good the A400M is. It demonstrated great success taking off and landing from large international airfields carry well below its max all-up. Op RUMAN proved it can take off and land successfully in vaguely austere airports years ago, so where's the progress? Hats off the to the crews flying the things for being able to cope with the air situation, but none of this has anything to do with how good the A400M is as a tactical air lifter. The same job on PITTING was being done by airliners.
You'll note that the TLZ activity that we have been told about was done by a C-130, and that we can all probably agree that it should have been done by an A400M for credibility since it can supposedly do the same things as C-130.