In the a330/340 pitch up event the initial biggest non reaction here was purely due to the 'startle effect'. Remember in the Crz we would be at a low eb or state of mind especially after hrs of continuously the same noise levels & body movements. This is why people fall asleep at the wheel of a car & crash. These factors coupled with something that we are rarely exposed to (sudden pitch up)accounted for those 17 secs.
As I mentioned in an earlier post re the AF447 there's no way an Airliner operating close to it's highest performance Alt limit could suddenly have the ability to aggressively Clb & sustain it (other than using the energy avail initially ) due an over-speed in Lvl flight. To have the pilot/s react with full back stick to compensate (a natural reaction when first confronted with this rather odd & totally unexpected indication) is almost plausible when you think about it.
As we all know a blocked Pitot system effects just one primary system, Airspeed/Mach & it's associated connected elements (A/P FD etc) so any rapid increase in indicated AS/Mach isn't something that naturally occurs in Lvl flight to any major degree with thrust set.
It all boils back to basic airmanship....PITCH (or Att)/POWER & with 2day's extensive auto flight systems doing ALL the work for us our brains are becoming slowly de-tunned & desensitized to erroneous indications such as in this event.
Man will continue to fly perfectly serviceable flying machines into the side of a hill, such is the tenuous joining of man & machine despite all the technology.
It won't be long now when all the drivers in a typical Airliner will only ever have had exposure to highly sophisticated automation at transport level & raw flying skills will have been pretty much bred out as they are essentially no longer needed.