the lesson I get from that is that when workload and stress are at a peak, FD bars are what a pilot will follow, disregarding other sources of information.
The lesson was that
those pilots did that. That's a flaw of their training, experience, education and perhaps ability.
Blindly following FD's isn't the answer. The answer is adjusted your attitude so that the FD's respond the way you want them to.
The FD 'stare' will eventually fail you if you have automation confusion and aren't backing it up with the standard instrument scan - attitude/pitch/power, verify performance via airspeed/heading/VVI/altimeter/navigation instruments.