Pace,
Check out the following site:
http://selair.selkirk.bc.ca/aerodyna...lti/Page1.html
The top graph shows a graph of the power required to maintain level flight at a certain airspeed (the blue curve) and the power available (the red curve) at the same speed. When the red is above the blue, you have more power than you need and you can use that excess power to climb. And, if all you want to do is maintain level flight, you can do that at any speed between the two intersections of the lines. Hence, if you have a 200 fpm climb at 90 kts, it's possible that you may be able to accelerate out to 127.
Now look at the bottom graph. Specifically the lower red line. This illustrates the case where your power available is just equal to the power required to maintain level flight at one specific airspeed. That speed is Vyse. Now as you can see, if you try to accelerate away from Vyse, you end up making less power than what you need to keep level. This means you will descend until you return to Vyse. There's just no getting around it.
And finally, the "step climb" you keep talking about is actually called a zoom climb (yes, that really is the official technical term for it). It's a fighter jock move that you can use to temporarily get yourself to a point in space by trading kinetic energy for altitude. But as with anything in this world, it's not a perfect trade. You'll end up losing some of that energy to air resistance on the way up. It works on jets because they're travelling fast - lots of kinetic energy - and have extremely low drag - little air resistance. Compare that to light GA airplanes (especially a light twin with an engine out) where you have little energy and a lot of drag. At the speeds we're talking about here, the extra "smash" will buy you a few hundred fpm of climb for maybe 10 seconds, and then you're back to flying according to the curves above.
I also, from your comments about a "coffin corner," I think you're confusing Vyse with Vmca. If you slow below the blue line, it's not like going off a cliff. Just because the power required curve keeps going up doesn't mean that your airspeed will decrease uncontrollably. All it means is that you'll have to use "backside" techniques to fly the airplane - i.e. control airspeed with pitch and rate of climb with power. And since you're already asking for all the power you can, pitch is all you have left. So there's not even a training issue here. Now if you get below Vmca, that's a whole 'nother story.