John,
  I'd take issue with your statement that AOA indicators are good only if landing on a carrier.  If that were the case, I don't think it would be displayed in the PFD and HUD of the 737's I fly at American.
  Granted, most of the time AOA is not something you even look at.  Most of us use airspeed, not AOA as our target when landing.  When it becomes an invaluable tool is in the case of a stall, encounter with wake turbulence in the pattern or particularly in the case of an engine failure when it can show you when your wing is producing the most lift and particularly if you're defeating yourself by trying to extract more lift than your wing can provide.
  You're correct that many pilots react to a dropping nose in a stall by pulling back on the elevator.  The AOA will tell you aurally and show you on the indicator when you're pulling too much.  Heed it's guidance and you stand a far greater chance of recovering rather than making things worst. If you're facing a forced landing, AOA will indicate optimum L/D for any weight, which gives you the best glide performance.
  I flew AOA in the Navy and I used it for much more than just carrier landings.  At American, we practice windshear, microburst and unusual attitude recoveries in the simulator using AOA as our primary guidance for pitch inputs.  I'm glad I have it in my ES and advocate it's use in any experimental.
  Skip Slater
  N540ES