Interesting, I thought the 737NG FCCs were slow, but what you describe sounds identical to what I've seen on the baby boeing. I doubt the 777 autoflight system is as basic as the 737 one, but just for comparison the 737 autopilot has no idea what the airplanes configuration is for the purposes of giving pitch commands fo LVL CHG or VNAV SPD, just that the control response is proportional to the deviation from the target speed - some colleagues are clever enough to set a speed 40 knots higher than the present speed (after an intermediate level off for example), hit LVL CHG and yank the speedbrake out - felt like the navkit was going to go airborne on the flight deck, but we (barely by the way it felt) maintained positive Gs
