Not wanting to appear boasting, but I flew the MD11 13 years and had no problem with it.
Look at the statistics and you will realise that during the initial years of operation there were very few incidents. The reason is that the crew came mostly from DC10 or MD80, they were well experienced in pitch and power management and a rather steep climb of the speed/drag curve below Vref.
Once seniority started shifting pilots from the new generation of A320 aircraft, where pitch and power and trimming is no longer really emphasized, the problems started.
The reaction of MD/Boeing was implementing more and more input inhibits as to counteract the loss of piloting skills, they only aggravated the situation by castrating the controls.
I am not saying that the MD11 was the best aerodynamical achievement, although it has the by far best cockpit layouts and logic, it was an aircraft that was manageable for a properly trained pilot. The Boeing bulletin now tries to achieve just that.
The problem is that too many of todays pilots came through the new automation religion and are simply lacking the basic skills of flying. A simple bulletin, a sim session or two and some well intended but cheap words of a chief instructor will not suffice imho.
The MD11 is out of our time. But I loved it.
(by the way, the bounced landing crash in Hong Kong by ChEa WAS a passenger airplane)