Well, we get to replay the incident over and over......
Before I return to the "monitor mode", I think Doze summarized the whole thing, and it wasn't "flare mode" or altimeter settings or anything else except:
I think it's not a simplistic either/or proposition though. It could be that he moved to level off at 100ft, but the inertia of the rapid, improvised descent profile coupled with an abnormally low thrust setting caused the aircraft to continue to sink while he was heads-up, looking out of the windscreen. The rapid increase in workload due in part to continued improvisation could have lead to confirmation bias and misreading of the altimeter when he looked heads-down again. I'm not saying that's what happened as much as asking you if you think it plausible.
I have personally lost friends that did stupid things like "pressing" when they should have done a "go around" or broken off the attack ( fighter stuff). Pride is a player, and "get the job done" is also there on most of the losses. Then there is loss of situational awareness and basic failure to use all the displayed data of your flight path and such. On the civilian side, I knew the Cali pilot and the guy at Little Rock ( not like Cali, but still sad to lose a student of mine). Didn't cross paths with Sully, but might have, and he did it right. I got tired of going to memorial services my last two years in the "business" - 4 pilots that were of my age and experience that screwed up, and were all pilot error.
Sorry for the personal stuff.
Let's face it, the accident/crash happened due to poor judgement, and the jet did everything it was designed to do. Not enough to compensate for a sorry execution of a simple flyby, but you play the cards you are dealt.
I am not sure about the purpose of a low, slow flyby at a ridiculous altitude for a big jet and at a high AoA. But the captain tried it. Poor planning and practice. Then getting behind the jet's capabilities. Sad, sad.
I relish the info on the flight control laws and such. Also like the insight I see from professional "heavy" pilots and a few engineers.