After having sailed for about 5 weeks along the French Atlantic coast and been in a lot of different harbours, I can fully confirm your comments.

She will go her own way in reverse, so the only method is the one you mention, that is backing out and using short bursts in forward gear with the rudder fully set on one side or the other in order to initiate or keep a rotating movement. Once this is mastered, it becomes quite easy to handle her. I reckon nevertheless that the strain imposed on the gearbox must be more severe than with a more modern hull design.

We noticed that with the new, more powerful engine and a larger propeller, she now is much easier to handle in tight corners using the "burst" method.
There are nevertheless situations where one should not try to back out of a berth under engine. We found out that she is very sensitive to any current (I suppose this is the result of her large keel area), and in one circumstance our efforts only resulted in scratching the bow against the pontoon. At other times we just used ropes to pull her out of a difficult berth.