Franzl,
I am uncomfortable with your thoughts regarding neutral stability although I have no problem with the Airbus's maintaining a constant flight path hands off.
Indeed, one of our PPRuNe number was in the Regulator's FT chair when the A320 was introduced to AN in Australia and he was quite ecstatic about the aircraft's capabilities at the time of Australian certification.
However, I acknowledge that my FBW knowledge is limited so I guess I will have to dig into the books and read up some more on FBW bits and pieces ...