Before I say anymore I want to make it clear that I have the greatest respect for all of the crew involved in the Hudson river episode. It wasn't just flying skills that did industry proud on that day.
However one cannot ignore a few basic facts just because they don't fit conveniently in the nice little picture most of you have painted.
Seems from the videos of his touchdown in the Hudson he did it perfectly.
Well come on now you can't have it both ways. Perfect landing with control stick at full pitch up but with normal law limiting the input. NTSB stating that the outcome of the incident was improved because normal law was active.
That is quite clearly english for FBW played a positive role by assisting some superb flying under incredibly difficult circumstances.
The NTSB statement was completely unnecessary if the aircraft manual control inputs had remained within safe limits throughout the ditching. The reality is the system intervened to aid a perfect landing. In fact some have suggested that the FE protections allowed the crew to trade every available knot for a reduction in vertical speed.
That is not taking anything away from the pilot who undoubtedly was still the major factor in a successful outcome. The fact remains however, ego's aside, things may well have concluded differently. This seems to have been confirmed in NTSB tests carried out after the accident in the simulator where all 4 pilots crashed under similar circumstances.
So my point is you can't have one without the other. FBW is a fantastic tool and aids flight safety. It replaces ego with hard and fast software routines that will save your butt.
What it doesn't do is replace the pilot who still needs to be on top of his game.