I'm not 'anti airbus' - I've never flown one. But...
It strikes me that the bus flies quite unlike other aircraft even when everythings working as it should, which is practically always. I'm talking about the way it processes roll and pitch inputs, with the a/c staying rolled or pitched when pilot input ceases.
But when the autos have gone off-line and instruments have stopped indicating normally, its behaviour is going to change more than a non-airbus would. ie it changes back into what a non-airbus would be like with the same failures.
Someone mentioned having to roll the wing level by hand. The pilot of a non-airbus would not be surprised at suddenly having to do this. An airbus pilot, with probably very small actual 'stick time' (never mind stick time in IMC on partial panel) would probably be very surprised to fiind that his 'bus had stopped helping him in this way.
Also, unless given the chance to practice in this degraded flight condition, is it really surprising the pilots struggled?
The trouble with these autos is that the better they get, the more confused you are when they fail.
All I'm saying is that a highly automated Airbus makes a pilot highly dependant on its autoflight system and 'easy handling'.
Maybe a bit too dependant.