I agree with this statement about the captain not knowing the PF had been pulling full back on the SS for some time causing the upset in the first place.
Who would expect any pilot to do that or the PNF to allow it?
Did the PNF know? He perhaps knew the nose was up a bit (not grossly high, mind you), but did he realise there was backstick in? Possibly not, as there is no "stick" in the traditional sense of the word.
It is quite clear in my mind: regardless of all the "Once again it comes down to knowing your machine and what it does. What you can do with the controls - being a professional pilot in fact"-type comments, the SA of the PNF would have been much-enhanced (quite probably to the point of being able to do something positive early on) if he had a control column in front of him, not to mention the skipper when he appeared. Whether the cost-savings of having independently-moving, hidden-from-view side-sticks is worth 228 lives: that is the question.