Indarra - I believe BEA are correct to focus on 'how they got there' rather than 'what they did then', since there was ample evidence of a stall both in the cockpit warnings PLUS surely the basic knowledge that if you 'zoom' at high level you will run out of the big skyhook.
There should never have been ANY need for 'advanced' recovery experience, since proper control of the a/c AND recognition of and an appropriate response to the zoom and stall warnings would have avoided the 'flop' into the high AoA stall they created. Surely the aim MUST be to have pilots who can react correctly to the initial flight path divergence rather than giving training in recovering from an extreme situation.
Regarding the altimeter presentation - even given that the 'digital' display is less intuitive than the analogue dial, I still find it hard to accept that the sight of the numbers in the box spinning rapidly (does it really matter which way?? - it should NOT be happening, whichever way) did not jerk them into looking at what was happening.