Why do Airbus sidesticks add their inputs? There have been a couple of Airbus disasters where, in the confusion leading up to the crash, both pilots have attempted to control the aircraft with their sidesticks at the same time. In the absence of either pilot using the priority button, the effect of this is that both inputs are added, and the result clamped to the maximum single input.

On the face of it, this is a very curious design decision. Obvious alternatives include prioritising the left-seat stick (unless the priority button is used), or even averaging (instead of summing) the inputs.

Are the original reasons for this design decision documented? Is there an advantage to summing the inputs?
I believe that there is some logic in the design, actually, even if I don't really fancy it. If you think of the traditional yoke as a control element where a certain force (or moment, rather...) results in a certain change of flight path, then if both pilots apply the same force (rather than targeting the same deflection), the resulting aircraft reaction is more pronounced than if only one pilot applies that force, although probably not with linear relation. The sidestick controlled flight control system does the same.

What is missing much more, to my mind, is feedback to one pilot about what the other one is doing with the stick. I believe that having them interconnected or back driven would probably not have been such a bad idea.