Boeing Direct Mode not Unaugmented
One thing to be careful with is terminology regarding control system modes. The Boeing 777 and 787 have three basic modes for manual control: Normal, Secondary, and Direct. All three involve pitch stability augmentation.
Normal Mode is provided unless failures result in insufficient equipment availability to support the full-up suite of functionality. Most pilots will only ever experience this mode as the other two are for rather remote failure conditions.
Secondary and Direct Modes are activated in the event of failures that preclude Normal Mode. These two reversionary modes share the same level of augmentation and thus the same handling qualities. Secondary Mode is activated if sensor input data required to support Normal Mode are no longer available. Direct Mode is activated if control system computational resources required to support Normal or Secondary Mode are no longer available.
Both Secondary and Direct Modes involve pitch rate feedback to improve pitch stability. Because these are reversionary modes and Normal Mode has sufficient availability, the handling qualities provided by Secondary and Direct Modes are permitted to be degraded. These response characteristics would not be sufficient for certification for every day use.
It turns out that the limitation as to how far the stability can be relaxed is the acceptability of the reversionary mode handling qualities, not what the full-up Normal Mode system can provide. Making it handle well when all of the resources are available is one thing, having it handle acceptably when the stuff has hit the fan is something else.