Hi Gums,
While I feel quite humble comparing my experience to your time developing the F16 FBW, I have to agree with your sentiment regarding the complexity of the FBW law degradation. With one of my first projects as a young engineer I happened to be working with an old guy (who would be deemed a dinosaur in PRRUNE) who said to me “Whatever you do keep it simple” as he proceeded to literally throw in the bin an extraneous controller (PLC) that had been causing us no end of trouble. I have applied this for the last 30 years and it has never let me down. This does not mean “don’t use automation” but it means “do not over use automation.”
While I haven’t flown a modern jetliner from what I have read the automation seems excessively complex, and I’m not referring to just AB products. Complex things confuse people and confused pilots don’t fly planes very well. Yes, I know pilots should be trained adequately but training can fail just like a pitot tube.