Indeed it was Chuck Yeager who referred to an astronaut in a Mercury spacecraft as "spam in a can", though Chuck was perhaps ill informed, as it was Gordon Cooper who demonstrated the remarkable precision of maneuverability of the Mercury spacecraft by hand "flying" it through an excellent re-entry. Yes, I accept that the Mercury spacecraft looks a bit like a can. I think that Chuck would have been one of the very few people on earth who dare consider pilot astronauts as "spam". But, I will always defer to Chuck, as I admire him.
car-like aeroplanes with appallingly poor handling
Define "car". Are we talking Porsche 928? or a Lada?
I have flown some aircraft with appallingly poor handling compared to others: A DC-3 is terrible to fly compared to an RV-4. But the RV-4 can't carry your overnight bag. The DC-3 can carry the RV-4
and the overnight bag. The Beaver has pretty poor handling compared to the Chipmunk, but it can take a half ton of your stuff into a little lake 500 miles away, and return. By the way, how isn't a Chipmunk a North American "spam can" - the engine? We can fix that, they're STC'd with Lycomings! It's a matter of what you want the plane to do. Personally, I would rather carry someone, and something somewhere, and home again. But, that's just me, to each their own.
I could find something appalling about any aircraft I've ever had the pleasure to fly, but I choose not to look for that aspect. I'd rather think about how lucky I am to have flown all the different planes I have, and to own two, which suit my needs well, are completely within my budget, and live a one minute walk from my home. If I were to go around describing people's chosen aircraft as appalling, they would not invite me to fly - my loss! Instead, I fly all kinds, and I like that! Would I come back from a flight test and tell the owner that his plane is appalling? I'd never be hired again!
So new pilots out there, check the mags the way you were trained AND understand what you are checking for, and the implications of incomplete checks. If you're flying a Cessna floatplane, please do live mag checks for the safety of your docking. And.. don't go around calling other people's planes "spam cans" or "appalling", it's just rude for no good reason...