Airbus designs the aircraft, however, they do not operate them (except their fleet of Belugas). And even with the best reporting culture in each airline that operates them, and we all know that especially in Asia nearly no reports are filed, they have only second hand knowledge of its operation.
Interestingly enough, airbus never audited us, not even when we had vastly different SOPs (which had no negative influence on safety level). Unlike boeing, who audited us at least every two years, quite often more frequently. Apparently airbus is not really interested in getting first hand experience in normal line operation from their operators.
And in every accident relatives will drag the airline into court for every reason available. That is the reality they have to face anyway. Be it for a difference in SOPs, but usually for bad training and not following the SOPs that were in force and justified by the airline (which has to justify it, the OEM doesn't have any economical risk in that point) and approved by the authority. If a pilot isn't aware of the FMA he is a risk, no matter if he just (automatically) said "checked" or not.
There is one time where the FMA calls are a great help, and that is during initial training, both in flight school and during initial type rating. Later on they just become automated "nuisance" calls, which the aircraft could do by itself if they are that important.