Let's be clear - what accidents like Flash Air have proven is that the physical response from the human body is more often than not wrong. Getting too deep into it is going too far. It doesn't matter what control law the machine was in - the input sequence was inappropriate.
No-one's saying the crew was "clueless", but let's be honest. If you're at full thrust, full back-stick and the aircraft is still falling - what else can it be other than stall?