Nowadays planes will yank on the controls on their own initiative, most destructively e.g. in the case of a certain pair of 737MAXs.

They probably assumed that is what was going on. That the other pilot was doing something obviously wrong is not a natural assumption, when there is an alternative.

It seems like Air France has got some procedural drills to work on. One would have hoped that happened already. Somebody should check, this time.