Before Landing Check List,
I doubt that Airbus attempted to design an aircraft for the lowest common denominator. As someone else stated, airline management has mistakenly decided that the protections/etc are a substitute for stick and rudder skills.
In my short six years flying narrowbody Airbii, I've realized that the airplane demands a masters degree level of understanding in order to deal with any situation other than normal. In A447's case, the pilots were faced with the need to properly evaluate the situation, to understand what changed in the 330's flying characteristics depending on the exact failure/control law downgrade, to hand fly an aircraft with different flight characteristics than they had likely EVER experienced, etc.
Airline management, especially in my US LCC experience, attempts to short cut training to save money. For example, my carrier only trained UAS after this accident. IOW, the manufacturer is not responsible for the cost cutting in training.
I'd still rather fly a Douglas.