I apologize if this has already been pointed out but, there have been several suggestions that manual flying skills need to be improved by relying less on automation to fly the aircraft. A number of boasts about how some 'hand fly' to high altitude in an effort to keep those manual skills sharp. While that's all well and good, this issue was on the runway during takeoff. The takeoff manoeuvre is probably the most repetitive manual manoeuvre a pilot will ever perform. Both in real life and simulated life, so while an over reliance on automation is in itself an important issue pilots need to address, I fail to see how any recommendation for additional manual flying skills relates to this event. If I understand this event correctly, the automation wasn't engaged until the aircraft was placed in a positive and normal climbing attitude and from that point onward, ops normal.
Some assume that all pilots are taught when to look through or ignore the FD never mind when they clearly see GIGO. I often wonder about that?
Willie