it is more difficult to accept that the Captain joined his fellow pilots' erroneous view of the situation without there being some pretty compelling, but ultimately wrong, data as to what the aircraft was doing.
I don't agree. Hindsight is 20/20. The issue facing the captain when he came to the flight deck was simply who was in the best position to fly the plane. That's a judgement call, and a bit of a coin flip. To me, it says that he trusted in the professionalism of his fellow pilots. In hindsight, that judgement may have been wrong. But I won't second guess that decision.
It's like his decision to take his rest break when he did. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the safest course of action. But he had no more of a crystal ball than anyone else on that flight.
I think there is a temptation to expect the captain to ride on his white steed from the bunk onto the flight deck, manfully throw the stupid PF out the door, and heroically wrestle the plane to safety. That would make for a thrilling movie plot but it doesn't reflect the way CRM actually works.