But once that aircraft started its video dance could they not have salvaged it by turning off the stuff and just flying the aircraft? I got the impression that they always were behind what the aircraft thought it was supposed to do.
Quite.
The automatics, when used correctly, when conducting a circling approach are a tremendous aid to flying an accurate and slightly more complicated than normal approach.
Planned, briefed and flown correctly using the autoflight system, whether Boeing or Airbus, would have enabled both pilots to have monitored a very accurate approach right up until late downwind where the aircraft would have been all but in its final approach configuration, at the correct height and speed when the autopilot would have been disconnected prior to a continuous turn onto final approach more or less on the correct approach profile.
The fatal flight brings into serious question the amount and quality of the training that two experienced pilots had received when they so completely mishandle a fully serviceable aeroplane to the point where they lose control and crash.