Of course they did - go back and read their posts. You will find numerous statements on how the yoke was more reliable than instruments. AirTren goes as far as to construct a whole castle in the air about it. Retired F4 talks about the yoke being more reliable than instruments. I would submit his memory is at fault here.
Given the way the PF reacted a yoke would have made no difference - simple as that. The cause of the accident lies in the human factors and we may never know exactly what caused the PF to act as he did. However, your preference for a yoke is an irrelevance to the cause of the accident. It would not have helped because of the circumstances of the crew on that flight.
As for your final point my comment still holds. Instruments do tell you what the flight control inputs are. That is their purpose - to give a pilot a measurable and reliable indicator of his flight control inputs.