Maybe not completely fitting here but there are two facts I am astonished at by the plane and its performance:
Throughout the ordeal it remained stable to a certain extent, just some rolling oscillations that were possible to correct by either the pilot or A/P.
In my opinion this is the result of new building techniques.
Older built planes never had wings that were absolutely identical, there was just too much spread in machining techniques. So they ended up with different lifting values, and most likely also weight differences.
That would have meant the plane will drop a wing and enter a spin when flown like this. MAYBE the crew would then had been able to get it out of its death track, given enough altitude.
That does not mean I am advocating to build wings a-symmetrical....
But it is like our new navigation/airdata systems, You can have a head on between 30 and 40W with planes flying opposite tracks at the same altitude. Something just shy of impossible in the old days.
The other unbelievable performance was of the engines and cowling design.
Delivering full power in thin air at flow angles of over 60 degrees is just mind boggling. No engine manufacturer or test pilot would have envisaged the engine would not stall. Older designs certainly would have stalled, thus forcing the nose down.
When still in my flying days I was cautious in selecting full power during a crosswind T/O. (OK, a sideways flow is possibly less favourable as one coming directly from below, plus the fuse blanking the wind).
But obviously modern engines are less vulnerable to off optimum airflows as we have thought they were.....
Anyway, when reading the whole story I am reluctant to say that I would have acted different as a captain, I would also not have realised, expected nor seen that the PF was giving full aft stick all the time.
I am happy to have reached my retirement age without any issue hitting the headlines... I can only recommend everyone to try this too.....