The 'feel' differs greatly depending on how accurate the trim setting has been calculated. That can also change the initial rate of rotate as well as the response to it.
I'm not 100% convinced that that answers IcePacks question. I can imagine how tailstrikes can occur to anyone under certain combinations of conditions, however, saying that "the feel differs greatly" is sort of making his argument......you can feel it. If you start a rotation with the normal backpressure and the nose leaps up quicker than normal you "feel it" and reduce the backpressure until the rate is what you want.....yeah?
I don't want to be seen as criticizing this crew in any way...who knows what went on, anyway, they did the right thing after the event and nobody is permanently worse off.