Firstly, the B-29 had the wings of a glider and cruised at 220 knots. The Airbus by contrast has swept wings optimized for cruise at .82 mach. What makes you think your intuition about the B29 is worth anything given the differences between those aircraft?

Secondly, the B29 was flown by autopilot in cruise. Preview "Bringing the Thunder" on Google books, page 155, for the memoirs of a B-29 pilot.

That said, this is not even an autopilot issue. The true source of this problem is the flight control system of the Airbus, which features a "self protection" system that intends to prevent the aircraft from stalling at any expense, and in this case, actively threatens the safety of the aircraft itself.

The truly frightening thing about this is that the air data computer clearly resumed normal operation at some point during the dive, and the aircraft was recoverable. Had this been a permanent failure of the air data computer, an airbus pilot has no way to override the aircraft's intentions and recover from the dive. An airbus pilot can only watch, as the airplane says, "No, really, I'm stalling, I have to hold the nose down and pick up airspeed!". With a failed ADC computer constantly and erroneously telling flight controls that the aircraft is in stall, an Airbus would dive, trying to recover, until it impacts the ground.

By contrast, A pilot of a Boeing aircraft can tell his aircraft that it's worldview is wrong and fly it by hand in any circumstance.

This represents a fundamental difference in philosophy. Airbus trusts the computer and the system more than it trusts the pilot -- It says that the probability of a systems failure causing incorrect control commands and threatening the aircraft is less than the probability of a confused, tired, or impaired pilot losing control of the aircraft. Boeing, by contrast, trusts the pilot more than it trusts the system.

There have been aircraft accidents where an Airbus aircraft has crashed in situations where a Boeing aircraft would have been flyable by a human pilot.

There have also been aircraft accidents where a Boeing aircraft has crashed due to incorrect pilot procedures which could have been overridden by an Airbus aircraft's flight control system.

Each philosophy has its risks and rewards.