It's not clear cut, black and white. Therefore, it is difficult to properly choose a "side," if there is one. Only the pilots in the story will know all the details... they experienced it. Environment and individual experience shouldn't be substituted with a one-size fits all approach.
However, I haven't seen anyone reply on this forum that they agree with each pilots actions (forward cylic to get airspeed). In fact, it seems that the consensus is that aft cyclic should be automatic and damb the airspeed (until RRPM is okay).