OK465
What's at play here? Is this solely due to the engine's increasing thrust pitching moment?
That's the way I read it. A quick sum suggests that at 118kt (the end of the simulator run) 2 CFM56s at full chat would give a nose up pitch equivalent to about 10 deg up elevator.
Why wouldn't the elevator show reversals of direction or at least pauses during the pitching to stabilize AOA, if AOA is truly the driver?
For the reason given above, the net pitching moment (thrust plus elevator) at the end of the run was equivalent to about 7 deg nose up. There is an indication that the elevator is starting to move back up at the end of the run, but even at that point the pitch is barely sufficient to be consistent with the commanded alphamax of 17.5 deg plus a bit of climb. [The pitch scale appears to be incorrectly labelled which doesn't help!] It looks to me as if for most of the time the thrust is supplying more than enough pitch to satisfy the demand but towards the end the thrust contribution is levelling off and it is from that point onwards that one would see elevator movement alone doing the controlling/stabilising job. Unfortunately (for this discussion at least) there isn't enough time in that state to form a judgement.