Pilots at that stage of the flight should have had theirs hands on the controls for quite a while to have gotten a feel of what she was "doing". This, done as a routine practice, would have educated the pilot at what normally happens in that particular phase of the flight in terms of "controls behavior". A prolonged idle position of the throttles at such a distance of the runway would have been automatically detected and would have triggered a reaction without needing any kind of intellectual stage of system analysis. Basic airmanship. So yes Plovett theory is acceptable in theory, but has to be totally dismissed as an acceptable excuse for the cock up. A pilot has to "feel" what his/her aeroplane is doing and react when things don't go according to plan. Click click click.... End of.
At the end of the day pilots have to be taught the right methods and not be systematically "replaced" by machines or have their behaviors "mechanised" by "covering arse" driven SOP's
ffs...