Better On A Camel thanks for your points. It does look like the vectoring was a bit sharp. But with the GPS supported map display on the NG the crew should pick this up and react accordingly. Whatever it reinforces the loss of situational awareness suspicions.
As far as who was in which seat, I agree it is still unclear. However did not the report refer to the trainee flying? In my company we avoid having jumpseaters during training, unless specifically required e.g. during the first few sectors, so as to avoid distraction. Is it not the most likely scenario that the third man was a safety FO?
We tried the deselect speed mode leaving the autothrottle in for a while. But it seems to have its own problems and we have gone back to autothrottle and autopilot off. My preference is latest at 1000' unless the weather is extremely marginal in which case it might be worth staying on autopilot longer.
Some sort of aural warning approaching alpha floor would certainly do no harm.