Bummer. And I thought that your post was based on experience and not on hearsay. Me, myself and a few thousand pilots who fly or flew FBW Airbi did so without help of pitch feel. Some liked it, some hated it, some didn't care at all but looking at mishap statistics, I am mightily sure that we all made quite good job out of it (for most of the time), even in gusty crosswinds.
Personally, I didn't have any problems switching from conventionally controlled aircraft to A320 and return to "classic" aeroplane was equally uneventful. Methinks that all the stories about FBW controls being significantly different are much ado about nothing.