I admit its easier said than done to comment from the comfort of the armchair but it seems that basic flying skills, partial panel flying was not exercised due to the overwhelming information being thrown at them.
I'm a few years out of touch with the training world these days so my views may be quite saurian.
In days gone past effort was spent in sim training, especially on endorsements (where some spare time could be teased out of the published program), to challenge the student with a variety of failed instrument situations.
Provided that the individual's self confidence was monitored (such exercises are pointless if the end result is not a confidence boost), the very great majority, including 200 hour airline cadets, were more than able to manage a "total" pressure and related instrument loss in adverse weather conditions provided the exercises were incremental and where "total" relates to just what you might be able to achieve in a given box.
For the 737 we generally managed to lose everything and those things we couldn 't fail, we covered up the gauge so that the end result was the same - with the aim being to lose all information which would provide accurate height, speed and position data.
For the more confident student we would end up with a simulated crew incapacitation (ie a single pilot trip) and Cat 1 recovery with a handflown raw data approach and landing in light wind conditions.
The effect on the individual's I/F confidence was manifestly evident and it was always a great buzz to see a guy (or gal) float out of the box with a head circumference markedly larger than that with which he (or she) entered the batcave sometime earlier ...
The other aim of such exercises was to impress on the student the imperatives -
(a) knowing body angles and thrust settings for configuration and flight stage
(b) "looking through" the FD so that the I/F cognitive process was an integration of raw data and FD guidance. Without this it has always been my view that the pilot is set up for bells and whistles distraction from the recovery task at hand.