2) How come the other 60000 operational Airbus pilots are not complaining about the sidestick?
How do you know?
After some years on A300 I flew A340 and A320 family, before I came back to A300 until my retirement. So I had the great opportunity to compare both flight control systems for years. From the LH seat as well as from the RH seat. I have to say I felt much more comfortable on A300 (Yoke). Especially on gusty approaches as PF and as well as PM.
But let's come back to the topic.
This accident would not have happened in a conventional plane like A300.
Why?
In a stall one would feel very soon what to do with the aileron, because stall is sooner or later accomplished by a wing drop. The aircraft will start to roll.
On AB FBW aircrafts, the FCCs will maintain a constant roll rate commanded by the stick, e.g. the pilot doesn't feel/see the aileron deflection, the FCCs will do the job!
Stick neutral doesn't mean ailerons neutral, they may be somewhere to maintain zero roll rate/wings level.
So AF447 went down like a leave in autumn. Most of the time wings level. The FCCs did a great job (sarcasm
), as designed.
Again, never ever would this accident have happened on 747/767/757/A300 and so on.