PJ2 - the work was done by all the groups involved in the various investigations, which included very high time MD-11 pilots as well as engineers from a variety of entities serving as "watch-dogs", if you will. While it is true that many pilots believe certain things, that does not make them true. Many pilots also believe provably false "theories" of lift.
The issues that have been raised are not new, and have been raised and investigated many times now. If they were true they would have been part of one of the accident reports. I raised the "fear" aspect because ANY airplane will behave differently if the pilots are even slightly nervous flying it and it would be enough to explain the accident rate, particularly as the rate is still low enough to be within statistical random distribution.
Lyman - while it is true that the 777 gear folds first, it is also true that 777 gear will collapse at a lot lower amount of force than it takes to break an MD-11 wing (roughly double), so, while you can get to a catastrophic accident in the extreme case, how many times are you averting a lesser (and possibly fatal) accident in the meantime? It is not such a simple thing.