FullWings
If you really want to go flying again, push the thrust levers forward and pull back on the yoke/stick when you’ve got enough airspeed. No intervention systems required. You can sort out the automation when safely climbing away...
Unless the Dunlops are already being tucked up in bed ... and there is one of the key questions. As an onlooker, I may presume that even ONE Trent 982 could overcome the extra drag of leaving the gear down for another 15 seconds. Does the PM make the call? If the PM was the FO, then we might expect life will be uncomfortable.
I don’t have the “gear down landing rate of climb” table for the RR892-powered 777-300 but at TOGA thrust and ALAW you’re probably right.
PM will call positive rate, based on altimeter, VSI, radalt, etc. It is quite possible that those instruments
did confirm the aircraft climbing but the airspeed would likely have had a nice negative trend arrow on it. In moments of stress we fall back on what we normally do and there may have been just enough confirmation to trigger the call from the PM.