@safetypee: as usual, you offer excellent insights.
Back to the basics of attitude flying and the old saw of pitch plus power equals performance. (Long running theme in the AF 447 accident discussion).
If the pilot flying the aircraft controls pitch and power (and correct wing attitude) he / she has set the conditions for what comes next. The pilot monitoring/co-pilot assists with the plethora of other tasks that take more hands, and require checklist, trigger the challenge reply chains, etc.
Has the system, in trying to reduce workload, cluttered up task management in a critical phase of flight? (Landing is a critical phase of flight).