Relying on the protections to prevent a stall has never been an SOP. Flight control protections are the LAST LINE OF DEFENCE, they should never be used to solve a problem because if they fail you’re screwed. That’s why the Airbus stall recovery has ALWAYS been to reduce AOA and accelerate, never “just pull back and let the protections sort it”. It is not a reasonable course of action for an Airbus pilot to gently pull back and let normal law protect you from a stall. The aim is to always fly inside the envelope but have protections if you inadvertently reach the edge, never to go intentionally to the edge and rely on protections to look after you.
There has been an industry wide change in emphasis (all a/c types) in recent years where before a consideration was to minimise height loss whereas now the priority is to aggressively break the stall then recover, as the new emphasis actually results in less height loss.