ESG - absolutely. That is the 'old' way. This thread has significant cross-over with my thread
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=285754 where I asked if too much reliance was being placed in training on the 'auto' side of the game. We do not, I think, know much about the background of the TAM crew as to in which flying regime they gained their experience and whether most of their 'time' was FMC/computer related.
You may wish to chip in over there, but we must establish how much can we train pilots ONLY on the 'automatics' (assuming of course they are totally reliable) and how much emphasis do we place on the 'old' skills.
This is a dilemma which will be with us for ever and grow in complexity as more and more 'if/then' and 'and/or' loops are added to the software until it is impossible for the human brain to adapt and follow the processes.
If I understand the TAM thread correctly (and I may well have got that wrong - it is a long one!), the option of deploying full spoilers manually was not there? If so, that takes away a large chunk of your raison d'etre. How do we train for that?