4468. I am of course familiar with AF447. You know as well as I do that with the myriad of factors involved it can't be used to argue for or against MPL flying. The copilot at the controls was also a glider pilot - can't get much more familiar with the flight envelope than that can you?
Regardless, it still falls into what I called the rarest of circumstances (and is still trained for anyhow).The far more likely life-threatening problem an airline pilot is going to encounter is a medical emergency, fuel emergency, smoke or fire, a defect that requires correct management etc etc. In those circumstances, good CRM through airline flying experience is much more likely to help you than watching 17 year olds fly around at 2000ft, in my opinion.
I will reiterate, I DO think instructor experience is valuable, but I do not think it is irreplaceable.