IMO
I can in small ways relate to the two pilots of this flight. On the face of it, it looks bad for their final piloting actions. FO retracts flaps without a command, and the PF pulls with seventy pounds on a device that was trying to save the aircraft. On the face of it.
Those two actions, if substantiated, seem to have sealed their fate.
I have experienced challenges flying that were it not for my training, I may have bought it as well. I am a relatively low time retired CPL who no longer flies at 62. It stopped being fun, because my skills lost their sharpness, and I spent too much time on edge. A Human at times needs to be an AP, relying on motor memory, rather than reflection.
Windshear, CAT, Partial Panel loss, etc. We train for the unexpected. The most valuable tool a pilot has at these times, is experience. The class of aircraft here is an extremely complex and challenging machine. I venture to say it is more of a handful than most large pure jets. To command this a/c with 109 hours in type is dismaying; time in a similar type would to me seem a negative rather than a plus. An FO with all her time flying in Arizona seems likewise disturbing in a New York winter.
So much wrong here, certainly not just the flightcrew.
Somewhere between Gray Pelicans making half a mil a year flying Gasoline powered Roundies and green sim-trained AP addicts making 18 thousand there has to be a level of competence that is reasonable on the FD.