But newness is as newness does. It seems to me that the tail is less
likely to fall off a Boeing jet, and surely that is more important
than the pilot's comfort in transitioning from a small jet to a large
one.

Has there been info about why did the tail come off that Airbus taking off
in NY?
The one that happened in earlier (in Italy?) was because they used
counterfit parts to save costs (old parts made to look new with counterfit
papers).