Only problem I have with your "analysis", Doze is that the jet flies like all the rest.
That is true if all you want to do is have auto-trim corrected for pitch attitude, roll limiting to 30 deg or so, and so forth. Mission requirements, I guess, as you have pointed out to me and others about my personal mission/operational requirements. All I can say was the thing flew like everything I ever flew until at the edge of the envelope, and then it excelled.
I shall never understand the continued back stick, so I guess I have to wait until we meet in that hootch bar in the sky one day where all we pilots wind up. Still makes me cry.
I also understand that many heavy pilots have never flown their jets close to the performance envelope WRT mach, AoA and so forth. So not interpreting mach/overspeed indications versus incipient stall is not a surprise to me.