DW
You are absolutely correct and there were many other issues that complicated matters in this incident particularly CRM and the apparent lack of recent manual flying experience by all the crew. While there is no need for physically coupled controls with the advent of FBW systems, it does provide an additional level of safety by giving immediate visual and physical cues in stressful situations such as flight in abnormal attitudes. No need to interpret a display, the evidence is immediately in front of you.