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I think it is actually that shifting the gravity forward makes the flight control surfaces more effective because they are now further away from the CG, but that's just from years of developing flight sims for the Navy, and no real knowledge ;)

It also could be with the engines moved forward from the wings a bit, their thrust tends to rotate the air frame "up".

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You are right. Airframes are designed to be nose heavy. The wings tends to fly up, whereas the elevators tend to fly down. In a dead stick condition, the airplane is designed to fly with a pitch down attitude so you don't lose airspeed and have enough airflow over the wings to continue generate enough lift to glide. If the CG shifts forwards, it is actually a good thing.

Source: I am a pilot.

It’s also that the engine nacelles themselves begin to produce lift (and a consequent pitch-up moment) at high AoA.

Oh well, I did not know that. Do you have any citation that explains this further?

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