i'm guessing rates for first flight are low rates...
for me.... ( remember i have years of car racing and a well trained thumb ) i dont like expo too much. you end up with a soggy middle and a over reactive end ( sound familar? lol )
your trying to control, the plane then it comes out of expo and dumps twice the control you just had in a fraction of the stick. better to soffen the middle with -20% and learn small smooth movements.
when your at low rates, you also have very little need for expo, the surface hardly moves, why do you need to make it less twitchy around neutral?

i just have this belief that flyers should be aimed towards having built in expo and good control of the thumb, rather than let a computer radio iron out the Playstation reaction.