I'm glad to see you got your bike more comfortable!

For what it's worth, you can ride a bike with the stem pointing backwards just fine. It helps if the stem does not have a large horizontal extension. If it is too long or your frame doesn't have enough reach you can run into knee clearance issues as other posters warned. With your stem it's not an issue, but non-adjustable stems put the handlebars lower than they were with the stem forwards when flipped backwards. I have a Surly that is a little too large for me (it was a really good deal), and I've ridden it with a backwards 40mm stem for a bit over a thousand miles. That includes several hundred miles of touring.

I think the handling issues of a bike with a hand position behind the steering axis are often exaggerated. One of my more ridden bikes is an old mountain bike with strongly swept upright handlebars. It is definitely different than a forward position, but the changes in handling are not hard to adjust to. The main everyday problem is knee clearance, which shows up at low speeds. I do have had to avoid putting weight on the bars when descending quickly. Hill climbing and standing up while pedaling have not been issues for me.