Dozy;
it's astonishing how little this information is understood by drivers,
Yep. Nature trumps automation every time.
The sim experience (fully manual flight on THS and differential engine thrust) was done during the initial course on the A340 and it worked sufficiently to get onto the runway. The A320 was much easier to control under the same circumstances, primarily due to mass and the need to anticipate much earlier for the A340 and would be a huge challenge but doable.
Tactile feedback simply wasn't an issue for most. While there are always counterexamples, no pilots I discussed Airbus issues with commented that moving thrust levers, sidestick positions, artificial pressure during out-of-trim conditions etc were fundamental to flying the aircraft. The key discussion point for us was always the airline's restriction on hand-flying and the absence of such practise in the simulator. The manual was written in such a way as to permit/encourage hand-flying and there was also an "appropriate-level-of-automation" list which provided good guidance for the engagement of automation, (fully automatic, to fully manual), but the trouble was, because no one was practised at it, they lost the touch and the confidence to disengage everything and that is a self-fulfilling series of actions. The policies were good and permitted the decision to disengage, but were not actively encouraged, the reason given being "fuel consumption". But automation is a god-send at the end of a long-haul flight and is an enormous enhancement to flight safety - it just has to be understood, and trained/checked well.
At least one exercise should be included in any practise session (not on the ride), and that is climbing and descending S-turns with changes in speed - fully manual flight including manual thrust levers, and no flight directors. It is a worthwhile exercise which takes about 20 minutes of sim time for both pilots and is a lot of fun (and is very revealing!)
A no-FD hand-flown ILS approach to CATI limits is already in the script and so are steep turns, but the above exercise is a good coordination, instrument-scan one...it should be done in Alternate then Direct Law, but one thing at a time.