Isn't the real story here that airlines / manufacturers want to fully automate flight. Pilots and crew are seen as expensive.
And so Airbus has tried to start that process. It couldn't go all the way fully-automated because there would be huge resistance from passengers / crew / regulators, but it has implemented a beginning.
The Airbus system comes with a manual of how to use it, makes it sound so easy ... however if something goes wrong it is unclear how to resolve the situation because the system's many secrets are not made available and in an emergency you have seconds to understand what's going on under the hood.
Airbus does not want pilots to be able to switch the system off at will, because that would derail the business plan of full automation.
For the bean counters, it's just money. Lives lost though regrettable are just a matter of insurance.
Automation seems the trajectory of the economy ... unless something changes. And we are now in an intermediate phase were there is an inevitable dishonesty about what is occurring, because automation is being phased in semi-covertly.
If the pilots / crew make a fuss, or passengers / airlines are scared ... then it will slow things down. If new plane technologies come through that require pilots, it will slow things down. If pilots were seen once again as part of the experience, it will slow things down. If the world gets richer suddenly it will slow things down.