My son has flown the Airbus 319 and 320 for several years now after transitioning from the Boeing 727. I am going to ask him about the engine thrust reversers being deactivated, and if his airline allows the planes to fly in that condition. In my flying experience I usually see the reversers being used at almost every landing.
The 320s my son flies are set up to seat about 160-170 passengers, while the Brazilian plane appears to have been carrying around 200. That extra weight would probably make engine braking more important on that short wet runway than it normally is.
Yes, that's what I said in my post (#51).
Autobrakes are usually pretty good. The problem is that as soon as the pilot tries to override them, the net result is less brakes as it is physically impossible to exert more pressure than the max brake setting.
Yes, it is impossible for manual braking to do better than 'max' autobraking, once the brakes are applied -- assuming 'max' autobraking was selected to begin with. If a lesser deceleration gradient such as 'minimum' or 'medium' were selected then taking over manually would have been appropriate. The 'max' brake setting is abrupt and uncomfortable for the passengers (at least on a dry runway). It means full braking, according to a preset deceleration gradient, close to triggering antiskid-activated wheel release. In this situation the max autobrake setting would have been appropriate, but the slick conditions worked against them. They also may have been fast, landed long, spoilers may not have deployed (may not have been armed per the checklist), etc. It didn't help that the asphalt was new, which means water beads more, contributing to hydroplaning -- and worst of all the runway wasn't grooved.