Thanks, PJ2. I wasn't trying to critique the crews as much as seeing a reason to rethink the autopilot that fails to preserve energy in the rare case of insufficient power - for whatever reason. Sure, at some point before stall, the autopilot will disengage and give the plane back to the pilot, behind the power curve, with energy wasted and with near full aft trim. Whereas, it could instead keep speed up, sacrificing glideslope beam center for max L/D.
GB