Wow, interesting. We are advised to USE autothrust for landing, except in very thermal conditions, and I believe that's what Airbus recommend too?
The Airbus autothrust is often accused of being lazy, but Airbus fly a constant groundspeed on approach, (incorporating 'ground speed mini'[mum]), not a constant airspeed, so it may dip below bug or reduce the engines to idle, but the groundspeed is still fine. (I realise this is technically not a "stable" approach in the usual definition of the word).
Crossed control approaches as you know are easy for us the pilots, but uncomfortable for the pax, (not the primary consideration, I know). Without checking my manuals, I can't remember about engine pod vulnerability - I think you would have to have a hell of a bank angle on to strike a pod. Crabbing approaches are do-able, and are what the aircraft itself does on an autoland. The only thing is with strong cross wind, you can feel that you in the cockpit are almost over the grass at the edge as you go over the threshold before de-crabbing, which is an odd picture to get used to and stay on the centreline.
Enjoy the A330 - it is a majestic aircraft !
(For descent planning; use 4x your height rather than 3x. With that huge wing, it don't want to go down !
)
U