I agree about the fun part. I don't think I have run flat tires. I definitely have a spare. The SH-AWD is amazing. I got to test drive while we still had snow up here, and I could feel the torque vector steering keeping me in control (while pushing it harder than I should have ;-) ). Fortunately, I never need to seat 6 adults, so the 3rd row is not a deal breaker for me, and the adaptive cruise will go down to 0, but if traffic doesn't start moving within 20 seconds or so, you have to tell it to start following again by hitting the resume switch. No big deal really.
My sister has a Sienna, and it is nice, but it is so much bigger feeling to drive. I was worried about even the MDX's size, as I never have had an SUV, but with all the sensors and cameras, it really is amazingly easy to manage. I am legally blind in one eye, and have poor depth perception, and I can parallel park this easier than any other car I have ever driven, and get 6" closer to the curb.
Sounds like you had the experience with Acura that I had with the Lexus dealer. He mislead me about towing capacity, used high pressure tactics, and in the end I cancelled my deposit on the Lexus. Which broke my heart. I really wanted a sedan, not an SUV, but I'll say this, after 3 months of MDXing, I'm really psyched how it worked out. I really like it.