Newbie here, not a pilot, but I've been following this since it happened and here is a link to a detailed meteorological analysis posted at the time, so none of the current information being discussed was known then.
I'm not posting this because of their attempts to understand what happened with the limited knowledge at the time, rather because of the extensive weather information and analysis given at the time. I wonder from the pilots here, if any of this analysis might explain the mystery of the continued nose up.
Air France 447 - AFR447 - A detailed meteorological analysis - Satellite and weather data