Some good points, Okie.
My aero understanding and actual college courses and actual flying with AoA indicators tells me that the "stall" or max L/D is pretty much the same as long as you don't have all the flaps and leading edge devices and such taken into account. Weight is not a factor, as the wing doesn't care according to the configuration. It's the lift curve for the configuration, not the weight.
IMHO, there's no reason to display the "bracket" as we had in the A-7D displayed all the time in the HUD. Wanna put it someplace on the crowded MFD, then fine. So in the Viper, we only got the AoA bracket with gear down for approach. And since we didn't have a lot of extra aero devices than flaps, the bracket gave a super reference for approach AoA that was fully compensated for weight, as we should realize that AoA for stall or such doesn't care about weight or gee.
Not to say that the AoA indication is a panacea, as it has to take into account of aero configuration. The display can be raw or it can be biased depending upon configuration. But it sure as hell tells you where you are and where you should be. Simple cross check with actual speed that you or your right seater calculated/looked up will help. Bit me in the butt one night on a slick runway when my trailing edge flaps were not fully deployed, but leading edge flaps were fine. So optimum AoA was higher speed than I should have been flying and I almost ran off the other end of the runway. BFD, lesson learned, as I had placed my trust in the "optimum" AoA for the approach.
The thing I keep harping on is that neat HUD that shows actual flight path vector based upon inertial data ( could be actual or a blend of pitch and some gyros). If I pulled and the FPM didn't move "up", then I was pulling too hard or was close to a stall. The pitch lines were also very comforting, especially for a night takeoff or for a carrier shot, because if that FPM was not above the "horizon line", then you were descending regardless of your basic attitude indicator display. I was taught, and flew many hours in bad weather and had to use the basic attitude and power specified/recommended. Then cross check for altitude and vertical velocity. Anyone here that didn't fly that way?
In almost 2,000 hours of HUD flying, I only had the FPM invalid once ( translate to 10,000 hours for you heavies). I knew it instantly and used the steam gauges to continue the takeoff. That was in Viper, as the A-7D used TAS and gyro attitude to provide a poor man's FPM.
I also experienced a static port freeze one day upon descending for a TACAN approach. Airspeed went to hell as I changed altitude, and altitude was frozen. BFD. I had that neat FPM and those pitch lines to tell me I was doing fine. Comforting. Set power per normal and come on down. I would have done the same thing without the HUD and inertial FPM, just as most here would have done. Basic airmanship and flying skills, ya think?