Aircraft or crew saved the A380 situation? This would be the textbook definition of a hypothetical question. This question is unanswerable in any meaningful way. The scenario cannot & will not be replicated. Good engineering & good crew performance saved the day. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn.
One thing we can say, is that given some recent accidents, Adam Air, Yogyakarta, Taipei (SQ) & Turkish, QF1 amongst others, that crew performance does make a significant difference to the outcome. QF crews have had some tricky scenario's recently, and they have met the challenge. I would expect crews from many other other high standard operators from around the world to also meet these challenges, but it is not a forgone conclusion that every crew sitting in an RPT high capacity jet world wide can deal with every problem to a safe outcome. If it were, there would be no accidents.