Chronus, you're making this out to be far more complicated than it is. We deal with these kinds of things as a matter of routine. The "whole" is most certainly not rendered unsafe when there are degradations in the flight control system. Seen it, done it hundreds of times in the sim...no big thing. But you have to know your airplane, and you have to respect the books, period.
The RTL problem did not cause the accident. No crew action was required, even though the warnings were a distraction and a nuisance.
An attribution of original cause is not "blaming" a dead crew - they needlessly paid the ultimate price - the airplane would have continued safe flight just fine until the 2nd FAC CB was pulled, with the captain out of his seat, which is contraindicated by the AOM as described.
A decision to execute a non-standard procedure plus the inability to control the result caused the accident.
At present, a "robotic" aircraft has far more serious shortcomings than one with competent crews but pilotless flight is another thread entirely.