The Hand's motivations have almost always been something of a mystery, but I agree that their plays in this arc have been beyond strange. It's true: an evil Matt Murdock would be a great leader of the Hand. You know who else would? Thor. Or Iron Man. Maybe they can get Captain America. It just seems ridiculous that Matt would ever accept such an offer, even given his self-appointment as "Kingpin" of Hell's Kitchen and his present partnership with Wilson Fisk. And the Hand must know that. I think it would be a lot more reasonable to just go after the real Elektra, or even Wilson Fisk.

And I always hate when the bad guys beat the living snot out of the good guys and then don't kill them because they have to hurry elsewhere. Come on — he's down for the count, just finish it. If comic writers want the bad guys to temporarily win the battle, come up with some other way to do it. In this arc, every good guy but Master Izo should be dead or under the Hand's mind-control by now.

I'm sure Foggy won't die. If I were the least bit hesitant, I'd be furious with Brubaker. Foggy is an awesome supporting character, and there have been enough gratuitous deaths in DD history to last us a good while. It's also obvious that the Black Tarantula and the White Tiger are starting to grow a conscience. I think they will break rank to save Foggy if no one else (like Izo or Iron Fist) shows up first.

And I've mentioned this before, but I don't read Daredevil because I like to see him suffer. I know lots of people do, and I respect that, but for me that's not the case at all.

Recently Warren Simons has said in an interview, about what's going to happen to DD in the near future:
"Matt's been a bit preoccupied with his life disintegrating over the past few months, but he's going to be in for a very rude awakening coming August and September.[...] Oh, and Ed and Andy Diggle are very, very mean. They're not doing nice things in here"

This and other statements made by creators in the recent past make me wonder if they too buy the "Daredevil readers like to see the titular character suffering" cliché.
I'm afraid they genuinely think so.
Everyone agrees that the best Daredevil story ever told was Born Again by Frank Miller. Every DD fan loved it.
And it wasn't a story about continuously piling crap over the character, it was a story about him rising from the ashes of complete defeat thanks to his force of will and managing to prevail at the end.

As muddy as the Hand's motivations are, I think we're heading into the direction where Matt takes over. Criticisms aside, that would be the ultimate low for Matt. Shadenfreude… isn't that why we read Daredevil? Looking forward to it.

Brubaker being good at handling most of the cast, but apparently not knowing what to do with Daredevil

the Daredevil signal + meet police guy on the rooftop and the sensory deprivation tank thingy.

the motivations behind the various parties involved not exactly clear (and the fact that the plot itself is unnecessary convoluted)

Foggy's turnaround was understandable, but not well played. It happened too soon considering that he had stormed out of Matt's house without giving Matt a chance to explain.