The checklists bring the aircraft back to a known state.

One 777 pilot commented to say that this issue should have been caught by at least two checklists, implying that neither checklists had been followed.

Tangentially: if my 2006 Mercedes is reset (battery disconnected) it needs to idle for 20 minutes to re-learn the idle pattern. The vehicle then needs to be driven around for a bit to re-learn driving patterns. I wonder if there are similar settings on a 777 that would need to be preserved between 'resets'.