Is there any evidence or reason to suspect that the a/c is difficult to hand fly ? If the initial climb was caused by such difficulties well OK but there is no evidence for that is there, the contending theories being the a/c flew itself under its own logic or that the a/c dutifully obeyed the sidestick inputs -made for whatever reason. I see what CS has said about effort and concentration but I took that to be typical across all types. Since the crew kept the roll excursions controlled then they must have believed the attitude data they were presented with, so the nose up condition must have been appropriate to some perceived state, unless all attention was given to trying to get the automatics back up and playing.