I agree.
In a lot of respects a more "hands on" type of plane is better, not least that the pilot actually has to fly the thing!
However, you can't stand in the way of progress and increased automation is the way it will go..
Whilst it's conceivable that "fly by wire" automation *may* have contributed to this accident, how many crashes has it prevented in the past? How many planes would have crashed were it not for the 'puter saying "You ca n't do that, mate"..?