Five Livers, and other Pruners, you appear to over concerned by the low airspeed, which if I recall was also the focus of the original thread.
When an aircraft is manoeuvred harshly nose down (a bunt), it reduces the angle of attack, which if this is less than the stall AOA, the aircraft will not stall irrespective of the airspeed. There are limits to this, particularly attitude, altitude, and the duration of the manoeuvre, but if the nose is lowered (AOA reduced) the airspeed will quickly increase – the same principle as stall recovery.
Similarly, people appear to be over concerned with less than 1 ‘g’, or for the passengers wellbeing in such conditions. It is very difficult to achieve and sustain reduced ‘g’. The force to move a control system usually increases proportionately to the ‘g’ required, this applies to reduced ‘g’. In order to spill the drinks (or the john) then the limit value – normally zero ‘g’, has to be both achieved and sustained, and even then passengers may not be any more concerned than they would in severe turbulence; turbulence at +/- 0.5 g may be much more violent.
The point of this incident is why the crew were not aware of the state of the autopilot.