Quote from Concours77 [my emphasis]:
"I asked Owain Glyndwr at one point why the graph in the report of the THS movement looks "smooth"? Yet the graph of the stick trace looks anything but? The trace is full of bumps, up and down...."
Here is a video of an A320 co-pilot handling the sidestick on what is probably a fairly average day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBuoA9qkKi4
(Several other similar videos are available on line.) The aircraft is presumably in Normal Law, but the pilot is consistently over-controlling the sidestick; behaviour that I often saw from the jump seat during many years of line-checking on the A320. I doubt that the pilot concerned was even aware he was doing it.
In AF447, the control laws were C* in pitch, but Direct in roll. That makes for a bad combination, because a lot of firm** movements may have to be made to keep the wings level, while only small movements are appropriate in pitch. With the Airbus sidestick it is more difficult to avoid roll commands affecting pitch commands (and vice-versa) than it is on the traditional column/control-wheel combination.
** [EDIT, in deference to comment by IcePack - below]:
(larger than those needed for pitch)