TTex600, you are absolutely correct that yokes connected to a stearing surface offer direct feedback from the very surface. While this is true in a DC-9 or a Boeing 737, this is no longer the case in any wide body aircraft since the last 40 years or so.
The DC-10 was the very first aircraft that had no direct mechanical connection to the stearing surfaces anymore. A lot of conservative pilots (i.e. most pilots) were crying out loud, but since then everyone took over this technology. With the only exception, that AI (not AB, AB is Air Berlin) replaced the cables to the hydraulic servos by wires and control computers.
So imaging yourself being in a DC-10 and having pulled fully up at FL350, you would have most probably experienced the exact same problem as AF447. When the captain in his pijama would have come back to his station, and the FO said "I cannot figure it out" and see him his yoke more or less in neutral, he also couldn't make any sense out of it.
I think that in a stalled 777 you would also feel nothing during your glide down. Because the yoke's feedback unit is not designed to give feel during stall. The only thing you would get would be the stick shaker/pusher (don't know if 777 has this feature). Having to fight against those two "poor man's protections" is way more difficult than against nuissance warnings.