Consider if it had been a more normal GA as all airline pilots train for, but the TOGA switch was broken or the autothrottle failed. They would still have crashed as they were not checking the thrust.
Agreed, why weren't they checking the thrust?
but the problem in this case as it relates to thrust may be the only muscle some are training/developing as PF is finger muscle that clicks the TOGA while not bothering to keep a hand there long enough to get feedback of a proper response (levers advancing) as pitch/attitude is changed,
There is your answer.
Why is this the case? Because we have designed auto systems and SOP's that mean a previously competent pilot loses the muscle memory of advancing thrust with almost no conscious effort. We can go on and on all day about how they should have delved into their memory banks to recall the correct sequence of checking and verification at that moment in time but it won't stop it happening again next year or next week. The action of advancing the thrust levers manually has to be so familiar to a pilot that they do it with little or no conscious effort. By having 777 pilots flare their aircraft with automated thrust reduction day in day out for years on end we have taken something that used to be subconscious bread and butter 'flying' and made it a ' procedure' to be used only on the very rare occasion that the system fails or you are weight on wheels. When that occasion arrives you are having a bad day and likely to have reduced cognitive ability due to the startle factor.
The only way around this is to let pilots fly their aeroplanes.