mm_flynn - well put, more lucid than I, and ContactTower, again I agree. My main point was that not knowing how to use it, said pilot would have been better off focussing on something other than the autopilot - statements blaming avionics training for the accident seem a little wide of the mark from my point of view, but then I can be as black and white as anyone here.
thing - not a bad thing for sure, but I don't believe it makes me 'dumb' if I do otherwise; from my perspective as a hirer, I rarely meet the same set of avionics in two different aeroplanes, and as Rod1 points out they can be complex beasts. I'm happier sticking with the stuff that I know and understand, rather than bringing something I partially understand into the picture. Luddite perhaps..
Big Pistons - I don't know. If that option is available, and you know how to invoke it, great. Don't I recall something, perhaps a cirrus now being fitted with a big red 'help' button to return everything to straight and level? But I do wonder why a) people do go 'inadvertent' IMC in the first place, and b) why it so often goes wrong. Delayed decision making? Refusal to accept the situation? Inadequate training? (foggles really don't come close IMHO) I guess that's a whole other thread. I am not instrument rated, but have had some instructed time in real solid IMC. As a vanilla PPL it was a bit of a shocker, but if you stick to the basics, it seemed perfectly survivable. I'm equally sure if I'd dropped the scan for 10-20 sec it would have all gone very very pear shaped.