I'm not comparing anything, I know full well that controlling the aircraft is merely the base level of what you can achieve. An ATPL would have to do a lot more. However, "following the FD" is *exactly* what the AF447 pilots had been trained to expect to do 99% of the time.
The reason I was able to recover (aside from the complex psychology behind me knowing I was in a sim and them knowing they weren't and that their lives were on the line) was the fact that I knew what was coming and how to recover, whereas it would appear that they did not. I had about 5-10 minutes following the FD on a departure orbit to get a feel for the thing before the scenario was loaded and I got dropped in the doo-doo.
That wasn't me blowing my trumpet by the way, that was me saying that the Airbus cockpit ergonomics are in fact very good. So good that even I could acquit myself with minimal egg on my face.
There was no radar "fault" either - the radar's exactly the same as in any other airliner of that vintage.