To know that it wasn't the plane is somewhat comforting I guess. I still am not 100% clear on why they didn't fly around the storm. I understand they were still heavy and couldn't gain altitude, but one can also go around, correct?
My understanding is that airlines set tolerances for how much a pilot can deviate from the set flight plan. It seems tough for me to believe that Air France's flight plan suggested they fly through the center of this storm, knowing they would be heavy?

I took an Korean Air flight from NY to Seoul a couple years ago on the new A380 and it was the most terrify flight of my life. I have flown across the Pacific close to 50 times in my life and nothing came close to this. It was like the pilots were looking for bad weather. I know that isn't true but the lack of reaction from the stewards on the plane suggested that it was normal. It strikes me as though other airlines would never allow such actions by their pilots, especially US ones.

Any event, it seems to me that while this seems very much pilot error due to inexperience, airlines also carry some of the burden for what they allow via pilot discretion.

I could be way off, but that is my observation.

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