I think it is interesting that there is a record of 5k fpm DOWN (VS/sel) in the FDR up til a/p release, then the problem went to manual, and the pilot selected repeatedly NOSE UP.
Approaching the chronic aft stick as an ergonomic issue is interesting. But, yes, the PF had been in his seat since T/O, so the likelihood that a cause for chronic incorrect bias (if there was one) in PITCH may have been elsewhere?
I think it is unfounded, to dismiss a thus far unknown potential for chronic a/c ND that caused PF (and PNF, had he the stick control) to desire constant NU, as correction. Remember the PNF was seeing the results of PF's actions, not the SS position that initiated such result. So PNF would not necessarily have seen the attitude of the NOSE as different from the results of control from the right side. Without seeing the RSS, PNF can not know cause/result separately. He sees results. The PF's panel was not recorded.