"I realise that is a gross simplification, but few pilots (I suspect) were ever demonstrated the pilot-maintained stall."
I go back a long way, but we used to do just that in the RAF's Varsities. I don't think "normal" students did that exercise, but it was certainly part of the training for instructors. I was a "Waterfront" instructor's instructor (why was it called "The Waterfront"?) at Central Flying School. You could hold the Varsity in a full stall, stick (yoke) hard back and it would just float downwards nose in the air. It was a long time ago that I used to do this exercise (best part of 40 years) so my memory is perhaps incomplete. But I seem to recall that even in a steady full stall, there was still some degree of aileron control.
Our exercise all those years ago bears a remarkable resemblance to AF447. Our recovery technique - giving an instantaneous result - was simply "stick forward"