RatherBeFlying,
Your comment,
"After reading all 60-some pages of AA's submission, I am at present persuaded that APC is well supported by the available facts and more probable than an immediate loss of the rudder."
AA is correct, the lead up to the accident was APC, and then the real cause was AP-decoupling. When the rudder was struck broadside, from opposite directions, severing the linkages to the rudder actuators, there was no longer any APC.
The rudder loss was not immediate but occurred after the .3 and .4G forces struck it.
What other explanation is there, for the co-pilot not to use right rudder to assist the right aileron input, in the attempted recovery maneuver? There was no rudder input available!!!