Chuks, I dont know where you find me demanding "high professional standards", maybe you should read through my posts again to make sure your not seeing things....
Through experiance on type, the DHC8 Autopilot does not give the aircraft back to you fully trimed, during normal Ops this generally means on finals you get a 3-4 degree pitch up when you disconnect in the normal landing config.
Ive never had the experiance of disconnecting the autopilot in the config/speed the buffalo a/c was in and hope I will never have to, so its just speculation on my part, however with speed and aerodynamic flow constantly changing in a stall I dont fully agree with your theory that the aircraft would be 'trimmed' and maintain the pitch. Also the Rudder trim is completly manual, so if the pilots were distracted and not flying the plane the rudder would no doubt be completly out of trim as the DHC8 is very sensitive on the rudder (that I have experiance of).