TTex600,
The principle is, perhaps, the same. It doesn't matter what the autoflight system is aiming at if the back-force is released - a trimmed speed or a certain 'g'.
Fact is, these guys were positively demanding maximum pitch up. Or, to put it another way, max positive 'g'.
Sorry, my knowledge of the Airbus range is nil - I was a Boeing dude. All I can see here is this crew failed to realise that a very high pitch attitude, full power, stick hard back, zero speed, and VSI off the clock was indicative of a pilot-maintained stall.
I know it's easy to pontificate from my retirement armchair, but I had noticed in my final years of professional flying (B777) that the 'new generation' of F/Os had poor basic flying skills - having been brought up in a fly-by-wire world, and in an ab initio system which had banned spinning training because it was 'dangerous' !
The Tech thread, by the way, has become a little ethereal for some of us!