A pilot can’t know everything. If another pilot, without the same military experience as that particular pilot, had been assigned to that flight, it would have been lost with all hands.
It’s good to know that American Airlines is giving all the necessary information to the crews, that may be needed in an emergency.
And, yes, I can see what you mean, in that if not for that quirk of fate, and if they didn’t have that particular pilot there (with that information in his head), all of them would have been a disaster!