I just can't believe that after pulling the yoke below 560 ft and after expecting the AT would take care of his airspeed there wasn't another reason why he/they increased thrust so late.
you can believe whatever you want but probably there was no 'other' reason.
Both pilots are alive and one of them tried to put a blame on a Sun reflection (that he was bothered by) - some very lame excuse. If there were some semi-valid reasons we would have heard it by now. NTSB report would probably mention it too, they interviewed both pilots extensively.