I seem to recall comparisons being drawn between the relative cleverness of building aeroplanes which essentially can't fly, and that of building warships out of combustable alloy or putting armoured vehicles onto rubber tyres, for precisely the reasons illustrated here.
At the same time, the point was made that by adding canards and thrust vectoring to an inherently stable airframe, an aircraft could still be more maneuverable than the best G-suit wearer could cope with, while retaining a degree of controlability in the event of total power loss.
What happens if something else knocks out the leading edge control - say a chip failure?
I'm glad the Spaniards made it out OK. Hope whoever it happens to next is as fortunate.