The fact that control settings were not synchronized between stations and cleared when turning over control is sure a blunder. The checkbox is not to be blamed however, it's a sane design choice.

Fun fact: on some airplanes if you pull on the captain's yoke and push on the first officer's, the elevator will split, the left part doing the nose up, the right one doing nose down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990