Here is a graph of some common types Cl V AoA note it includes 737-300 wing, the top curve is with flaps down slats out and the bottom one with sharp drop off is a clean wing.
While your correct that it does not go to zero immediately after exceeding Alpha crit depending on the profile it can be quiet a vicious drop off. But the drop in CL is usually enough you start dropping like a brick. Training type aircraft such a Cessna 150/152/172 have extreme placid stall characteristics and its more of a leaf falling towards the ground than a brick falling off the top of a building. Every one thinks Bernoulli makes aircraft fly but there is a fair old lump of Newton reaction force in there as well as most wings have a 3-5 deg angle of incidence built in relative to the hull so in no way is it zero lift, just not enough to maintain altitude or tighten a turn (which is usually where stalls occur). Conversely the piper tomahawk PA38 which I did most of my instructing in was a vicious little bitch stalling. But I quickly realised that this produced a better more prepared pilot post PPL completion after they moved to more benign aircraft types such as the 4 seater C172 which just makes a screeching noise the nose doesn't drop and it wafts towards the ground at a slightly greater rate of decent than normal. The Tommy nose drops by 30 degs you usually get the wing dropping suddenly all very quickly after a couple of buffets.
Designers have a few tricks to keep the airflow attached and move the initial stall point. They stick vortex generators on the top surface and they position them so the wing stalls at the root of the wing instead of the towards the tips or behind the alerions so you don't loose roll control in a stall.
But with all these things if you design the wing for nice easy stalling you loose other KPI's . Commercial aircraft are built mostly for fuel economy, they have two stage stall protection run off the AoA sensors (which is why they were initially added to the design) You have the stick shaker going off at 8% to go to the stall and a stick pusher forcing the nose down at 5%. When you turn the icing protection on they automatically alter the protection Alpha critical to a lower value and the trigger points change correspondingly.
As for the Vne speeds and stall Bob is correct for utility class aircraft you would bend the wings and the engine would cut out way before you reached stall speed. Extra, Steerman and a few others in the unlimited aerobatic class can do it although its extremely unpleasant even attempting it add most pilots will get G-LOC and release the back pressure on the controls before actually stalling. TO be honest outside acrobatic stupidity the main time this may be an issue and does happen is in a spiral dive or spin recovery. Some of these ultra light cat aircraft have quite low Vne with a cruise speed of 80-90 knots and a Vne of 130- 140kts. And once they dig themselves out of a spin they then end up pointing straight at the ground past Vne and pulling back on the stick with a dead mans grip. The poles in the wings bend, aircraft is written off, but most of the time the occupants survive.
This discussion might seem off topic. But there is a strong suspicion that MCAS is a stall protection device. If it is deemed to be one because of dirty stall characteristics then the certification requirements for it is going to go through the roof. We won't get to find out until the other regulators get there hands on the aircraft for test flights. EASA will be testing the flight envelope with MCAS turned off and stall characteristics will part of those tests.
And BTW the Steerman is a great aircraft to fly. Your wallet takes a huge hit though. It burns 50 ltrs an hour at 2$ a ltr in the UK. And that's just the fuel. Add on the dry rental price and you talking 500$ an hour. Mucho fun though. But I am a family man these days so don't go near anything that burns petrol or get in a helicopter of any type of fuel.
I like it, and you are correct 
