Reading this scares me a little. I am a Boeing pilot and know nothing first hand of the AB families. I also fly small piston a/c. In all my types of a/c over a long career thrust management has always been very simple. Forward = more and backward = less. As Pf you decide what datum to set and adjust around that. A/T might be used on later types, but needed watching and if it was slow to respond then my hand was always rolling through and told the silly billy what to do. never a word of thanks. Watching cadets in TR plug in the automatics and them not monitor them is most amusing, especially if they haven't noticed A/T has gone not ARM. The speed goes off the end or decays in to stick shaker: and I let it. They seem so bewildered that "the computer was engaged and it didn't do its job." A salient lesson learnt and never forgotten.
Back to my point; thrust/speed management was easy and intuitive. Now I read about the AB types that do this or that if you select this detent or that, and if you do this above 100' the a/c will assume this and if you do it below 100' it will assume something else and thus cause a whole chain of events to try and catch you out. Am I being staid in my ways or are they making an easy job difficult? If I first have to think about what else will happen if I push the thrust levers forward or backwards and by how much then it might cause unwanted hesitation, especially if operating different modified thrust systems e.g. A320 & A330 as has been mentioned here. Ouch.