We'd need someone more qualified to confirm, but moderate turbulence by any definition should not be enough to take out autopilot/autothrust and I don't think it did in this case.
The climb was caused by the human and not the computer, depite Lyman's ever more bizarre protestations.
@hillberg - we're not going into the force-feedback loop again if we can help it - suffice to say there are as many valid reasons for dropping it as there are for keeping it, so it becomes a matter of personal preference.