Will fine tune adjustments with protractor help with "brightness?"

I noticed the same phenomena you described in your original post. My feeling is that the Technics tables just track so incredibly well that you are hearing the natural progression of analog sound and it is more noticeable on this table.  The outer grooves will always have better fidelity than the inner grooves.  You are just hearing it more obviously with the table.  You may have to load your cartridge to accommodate the brighter outer grooves.  The thing is that the inner grooves sound so amazing that they sound like the outer groves on most tables.  Not sure how they accomplished this.

Of course the Technics engineers know what they are doing wth respect to tonearm geometry and alignment.  However it is a proven fact that different flavors of alignment have different distortion characteristics over the arc of the record surfaces- it becomes more of a choice and preference thing.  
However where the Technics engineers failed is by not improving the accuracy of the overhang gauge.  Adjusting the cantilever so it is parallel with the gauge is a guess at best.  There should be runway lines on the gauge.  
bottom line- it is more accurate to align a cartridge and cantilever with a proper gauge that lines up with the spindle.  
The mint tractor alignment sounds better- whether it be through "flavor" or allowing better accuracy (or both). 

Yip recommended the 9 step as the "standard" won't be avail till the end of July. Not sure what the difference is, he didn't say. It's in the mail too!

Regarding what I do and don't hear. I'm totally sure I hear anything wrong or not but was curious whether a specific protractor will help my cart be better aligned and I do believe it will. At least, I'll find out soon!

i am using the standard Mint for the 1200G.  Sounds great to me.  maybe I will try the new one when available to hear the difference.