Ah that’s most kind of you to say, thanks a lot. Truth is I had the very same feelings you had at first with this plane. Couldn’t figure out for the life of me why I felt like I needed to learn to land a plane again after doing it for so many years.
I must say that by now the PMDG 737’s autothrottle will probably be disconnected during manual approaches once it comes out. It’s such a treat to interact with all that energy surrounding the plane. 
Without autothrottle a good HOTAS is necessary. Only the Saitek X52 Professional has illuminated throttle position visible on the thrust lever, no other throttle quadrant has this feature.
You needed to learn a new airliner because nothing feels as good as learning something complex and challenging like back in high school when life wasn´t hell. And nothing feels as good as learning a complex study-level airliner that is accurate and with attention to detail simulated.
Among all these small GA planes the CRJ and the PMDG Cloudmaster are the only good airliner available with a beautyful cozy and complex cockpit office beautyfully rendered.
You will get the same great feeling or having “your own REAL airplane” again as soon as the PMDG 737 is released.
And I have contacted Leonardo Software and YES I can absolutely confirm that they are bringing the MD-80 MadDog to Flight Sim 2020.
Isn´t this the best news ever that the developer of the MadDog has written back to me and confirmed that the MD-80 will be released out for Flight Sim 20?
It´s getting second CRJ- and LearJet-style airplane, sleek and good-looking and eighties-style
The beautyful MD-80 has the same great looks as the CRJ - soon you have TWO new planes to look forward to learn it´s complex systems, the MadDogX and the PMDG737 
Because the only thing that feels better than getting one new highest quality study-level airliner, is having TWO highest quality study-level airliner to look forward too, and if you watch YouTube videos with the FlyTheMaddogX on Prepar3D you will be absolutely blown away of how awesome and detailled the cockpit looks and how good the airplane looks on the outside, and how fantastic simulated it´s functions are.
And now I am going to test this TO-function in the CRJ when pressing on this screw next to the CRS knob to see what it does…
Unfortunately pressing the upper and lower screw left to the CRS know on the autopilot does not change the layout of the HUD. But I have written a thread in the Aerosoft forum to zoom out the HUD a little bit more so it matches the real-life CRJ HUD with 20° pitch ladder visible
