What you seem to be missing, perhaps, philosophically, is the aircraft is mimicking the actual degradation of the suite of cues, displays, and controls that are the very genesis of the LAW degrade in the first place.
When, for any reason, cues and behaviour of airframe are lost to the holes in the cheese, how beneficial is it for the a/c to do the same? Fair enough, this is true for Direct DIRECT also. However, once in DIRECT, the skillset is less chsallenged, the a/c becomes a simple machine, not an automatic one. The interface is straightforward, and quickly acquired. At this point, airmanship is the key, not the interface that mimics it.
To change the response and controls automatically, requires an additional workload, and from my perspective, a most unwelcome one. Looking out the telescope frrom the small end, (what we are doing here), is easy, and without stress or penalty.
Looking through the telescope in reverse, (what the crew were doing), does not form a large enough background for global view. When the flying gets complex, why add additional changes that may cause consternation to a hyperfocused crew, looking for the ONE thing that needs the most attention? Simplification is the driving force, or should be.
The bottom line is the additional workload. Unwelcome, says I.
Right, Wrong, or Indifferent, the crew were unable to isolate the simplest move, get the Nose Down.
The confusion came from somewhere, I say a fair portion of it came from the platform. Fair?