We've seen at least three serious incidents/accidents over the last few years (SQ at Munich, Asiana at SFO and now EK at DXB) where the pilots' poor understanding of these traps seems to have been a factor.
These "traps" only exist if the pilots:
1. Fail to understand the systems they are (seemingly) totally reliant on AND
2. Fail to fly the airplane.
To me, both are a training problem, and probably not a design problem.
And contrary to this claim:
Auto Thrust
Auto Pilots
Auto Mation
None of it is designed nor programmed by Pilots.
At Boeing (and heritage Douglas) pilots are most certainly HEAVILY involved in the entire design and decision tree process when designing flight controls and automated systems and try out various design options in the simulator before those systems become final. It's one reason Boeing aircraft don't have side sticks and don't have autothrottles that don't move the throttle levers. Their pilots will not accept them.