Machinbird
Apology accepted from one naval aviator to another!
I feel the discussion has got way too "technical" and away from what an ordinary "line pilot" would or needs to understand. I too had 20 years of no A/P nor Flight Director where you had to "fly" the aircraft.
What we have here though is what appears to be a basic airmanship / piloting error, after a relatively minor emergency, as unpalatable as that may be. Blaming the aircraft or airbus for this failing is not good enough. Basic pilot skills of attitude and power would and should have been enough to solve the problem. There also appears to have been a failure in monitoring by the PM and by not taking control and commanding the situation.
The auto-trim did not cause the stall it was trimming the aircraft to assist the pilot, until it cut out. The upset training we carry out always puts emphasis on the fact that the aircraft may be out of trim and manual input may be required to assist in the recovery.
The effort required on the side-stick to achieve the pitch attitude and "zoom" climb was something that should never be applied to any "airliner" at FL350!
My very unscientific "experiment" achieved 13,000/min rod from 'stalling" at 38,000'. But with 15 degrees nose down, some trim, then thrust aircraft recovered by 29,000'.