1) instances where the flight computer prevented an incident due to pilot error
2) instances where the flight computer caused an incident
I understand it's not always (if ever) so black & white, and I'm sure there's a better way to break things down. But it'd be interesting to read something that attempts to keep some kind of score.
1) instances where your alarm clock prevented you from being late to work
2) instances where your alarm clock failed to wake you up
How could you possibly determine how often your alarm clock prevented you from being late? You can certainly tell how often it fails to do it's job, but you can't determine how often it's success is necessary because there aren't any near misses to detect. With no control group there can be no comparison.
You could count incidents which the flight computer is helpful, but you cannot count incidents that never happened in the first place because of the flight computer.
So you could analyze instances where the latter proved insufficient and try to guess whether the former would have been sufficient.
The bigger problem is probably that there just aren't enough useful extreme incidents to be draw any conclusions. Or maybe there are. That's why I'm most curious if anybody has even tried. All I ever hear is that air safety has increased along with an increase in computerization. But that tells me very little. Everything about the aircraft and its ground support has been getting better, not to mention the training of the humans.
They do have a record as a safe airline ( though Southwest and Ryanair are probably 'safer' given the number of short-haul daily flights they operate ) but QANTAS also go to extreme lengths to maintain that reputation.
For example in 1999 one of their 747s, reg VH-OJH, overran the runway in Bangkok after aquaplaning. The insurers examined it whilst it lay on a golf course and wrote it off as uneconomic to repair. QANTAS however decided to proceed on its own initiative, to maintain its 'no jet losses' reputation, and spent over $100 million on repairs. Probably more than or just about exactly what the aircraft was worth at that time.
They actually had another 11 years service out of that one before it was sent to Marana for storage.