Machinbird
As Gums would say, "That's my story and I'm sticking to it."
I'm with both of you on that one.
PIO is a very surprising event, and the problem lies in recognising it from the beginning. If not recognized the trained corrective action (to counter the unintended roll) agrevates the problem.
The same applies for the stall situation. Without recognizing an imminent stall situation prior stall warning by analyzing the energy situation of the aircraft (climb- gaining altitude - loosing speed) the stall warning might have been judged as invalid and caused by the failing speed indication. We all had faulty warning lights before, and first thing we do when one shows up or "Betty Bitch" is shouting is validating most of those warnings before acting. Excluding the stall from the equation it comes down to the basic trained behaviour: The aircraft goes down, therefore increase pitch to make it go up again.
That's what they did, and what others with stick shakers did.