Dave,
I am treading into an area where I am not very qualified not an engineer or anything. As for the rigid rotors the only way to find out is to try and see in my opinion. Or maybe look more at the data from the FL 282. I can't speak from experience with the K-Max but I was flying with an former K-Max pilot today and he told me that it responds to the pedal/cyclic the same way as the Huskie. This also may have something to do with the servo flap control system but I don't think so. Also he said that the Huskie rotor cant of 11 degrees was more optimum than the K-Max 12.5 degrees of rotor cant in terms of maneuverability and control pressure.
As far a pedal unresponsiveness is concerned I really don't know how the K-Max is set up or how it flies. But the Huskie is unresponsive because it uses differential pitch to cause yaw. In an autorotation the requirements change so there is a mechanical reverser assembly that changes the direction of the differential pitch change pushrod. At a certain low point in its travel the reverser output rod will not move at all no matter what the deflection of the pedal input. This complicates thing during low power settings such as during a descent.
Even with theses interesting characteristics I still think that the Huskie is the easiest helicopter to fly that I have ever tried you just have to understand the differences. If you check out why the Marine Corps discontinued the use of the HTK-1 (Helicopter Trainer Kaman Model 1 - was an early Kaman synchrocopter) you will find one of the reasons was it was simply to easy to fly and cadets could not fly the "normal" helicopters that made up the advanced stage of training. Interesting bit of trivia anyway.
Brian