I think you read a bit too much into that....all I meant was a neutral NAO beats the hell out of the exotic positives that we have grown accustomed to. I never said its the entire story HAHA. I lived through 2009-2010 here in SNE, so trust that I know a negative NAO is not a panacea. lol
You are also correct that there is more to the NAO domain than the assigned numerical index value.