DozyWannabe,
Thus we agree about difference between APand FBW. Probably many will agree : we may mimic the AP (mimicing human pilot the first) with confidence , but when the flight system is doing an autoland we feel very suspicious about aircraft's behaviour unless ceiling and visibility are beyond eyes skills and often we are surprised how it manages the thing! We would not have done that. FBW does not mimic the human pilot and it is really very frustating to share autority with the strange thinking of the missing algorithm maker near of the ground! Near of schyzophreny...
About your most loved manufacturor flight system's too many "laws", modes, sub-laws, and unnamed objects, gums' analysis is built on experience and I find zero good reason to think otherwise.
Being in a manual did never mean "not being unknown. by smart or stupid people.
Specially if it is not understood and the manual is often modified
