The yoke/sidestick debate is another of those irrelevancies which crops up from time to time. The sheer number of Aibii whizzing around safely using sidesticks proves this. The question as to whether the use of a yoke would have helped is rather moot. Given the captain's possible befuddled state on entering the cockpit he could have possibly overlooked the yoke being pulled back or misinterpreted the angle so discounting the evidence. The only reliable indicator would have been the instruments (minus airspeed). We do seem to have some indication that the PF's scan had broken down and that the PNF was deriving some information from his instruments but not acting on it. A responsible captain would first of all look at the instruments not the position of a yoke - to do so would be otherwise unprofessional. The instruments would give an accurate indication of the state of the aircraft. As Dozy sensibly put it neither method of input is perfect and both have their disadvantages but the substitution of a yoke in this situation would have made no difference. A different more active PNF would have made a difference but once again human factors are the most important here.